Fika Jobs raises $4M to build a video-first hiring platform where AI agents interview candidates

If successful, Fika Jobs could help employers assess communication skills and cultural fit early in the hiring process, complementing traditional resume and application reviews. This approach may be especially valuable for early-career professionals and candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, whose potential is not always apparent from a resume alone.

Of course, video profiles introduce real bias risks that are also worth acknowledging. When employers can see a candidate’s race, age, gender, physical appearance, and accent before evaluating their qualifications, it opens the door to discrimination that a resume, for all its flaws, at least partially obscures. There’s a reason some companies have moved toward blind resume screening.

The platform plans to open early access to candidates this week, with a broader public launch expected this fall. The company will initially focus on Sweden before expanding internationally. Fika currently has a small team but expects to teach around 10 employees by the end of the year.

More than 100 companies are on the waitlist, say the founders, though they declined to disclose which ones. Separately, they said more than 50 companies have tested the platform, including Plenty Labs, SICS.ai, Kognity, and Rebtel.

The platform is free for job seekers. Employers pay nothing up front, but Fika takes 10% of a candidate’s first-year salary upon a successful hire. (The company notes that this is lower than the 20% to 30% placement fees often charged by traditional recruiters and headhunters.)

The round was led by Luminar Ventures, with participation from Alliance VC and King co-founders Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconi, the duo best known for creating the hit mobile game Candy Crush.