Seattle startup Humanly which helps companies automate their recruiting functions, raised $12 million to help fuel growth of its AI-powered software, Geekwire is reporting.

Customers use Humanly to screen job candidates, schedule interviews, automate initial communication, run reference checks, and more.

The company is investing heavily in its short message service (SMS) chatbots that interact with job candidates, part of a broader rollout of new generative AI tools that help companies hire more efficiently, said co-founder and CEO Prem Kumar.

About Humanly 

The future of recruiting and retention starts with more equitable, efficient and empathetic conversations with job candidates and employees.

With thousands of tools out there focused on everything from sourcing to applicant tracking, we didn’t find a solution that moves the needle to fix what’s broken in direct candidate conversations. It has been our mission to help create a better version of hiring: equitable, efficient and productive for everyone.

The world of recruiting is changing rapidly. We know automation is part of the equation — and yet it’s not enough. It’s time to expand the conversational AI for recruiting continuum beyond chatbots.

We bring into focus the entire candidate conversation, measuring beyond the words to analyze what we say, how we speak and what we really mean. Now, organizations have a pathway to learn and discover how it’s possible to improve their hiring process and candidate experience.

As we deliver on the above promise – and own the conversational recruiting space – our customers have pushed us forward into post-hire scenarios, which draw upon our roots solving retention problems for companies like Microsoft, Airbnb, Amazon, Ascension Healthcare and beyond. With that DNA we continue to be excited about expanding our impact at Humanly to more efficient and equitable employee conversions – solving now for recruiting and retention.