‘Seek for Gen Z’ start-up raises $7m

Jacobs said Hatch had grown 20 per cent month-on-month over the past two years and is now the preferred job platform for young professionals in the first decade of their careers.

The start-up has racked up more than 150,000 candidates and 120 employers, including Domain, Hello Fresh, Uber, Woolworths, and Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

Jacobs and Heitner have raised $7 million from oversubscribed funding sourced from a range of Australian venture funds, including Rampersand, Alberts Impact Ventures, Aura Ventures, Jelix Ventures and Investible, as well as private investors, including former Latitude and Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour.

Jacobs said the funding round will be used to did not disclose its valuation.

“The business wouldn’t exist without Ahmed’s support,” Jacobs said. “He’s been amazing. He was running Australia Post when I was running The Iconic, and that’s how we got to know each other. One day, we were having a cup of tea, and I mentioned I was starting another business, and without missing a beat, he said, ‘I want to be your first investor’.”

“It was super hard to raise last year … It was an unusually challenging environment. People have talked about how challenging it was, but I’d say it was even more challenging than that.

“In the end we did get high-quality investors who took the time to understand the opportunity and have joined us on the journey.”

Fahour told this masthead that his private equity fund was an early investor and was attracted to Hatch due to its sophisticated technology.

“That, combined with incredible entrepreneurs like Adam and Chaz, whom I have known for a long time, is a winning formula,” he said. “In short, I back amazing people and with incredible new-age tech to make a difference to customers and deliver outstanding returns.”

Rampersand investment principal Taryn Pieterse said that Hatch was an example of an Australian start-up using AI to deliver a materially better experience.

“The AI platform that they’re building is really core to their product and makes sure that both potential employees and employers are seeing the cream of the crop,” she said.

“Adam and Chaz, in their previous start-ups, developed tech for the next generation, and they’re always thinking about the customer experience. We see them applying some of those same principles around building a great customer experience at Hatch.

“We believe that matching is going to be key to how every person discovers work in the future.”