Rotterdam-based Equalture bags €2.5M to combat hiring biases using games and neuroscience

Rotterdam-based Equalture, an HRtech startup, announced on Thursday, January 5, that it has secured €2.5M in funding led by serial entrepreneur Pieter Schoen’s Shoe Investments.

Existing investors 4impact and InnovationQuarter Capital, and two angels, also participated in the round. The Dutch company says it will use the funds to develop its neuroscientific games and platform, reports mtsprout.nl.

The announcement comes around a year after raising €2.75M in February 2022.

“We raised this funding purely and solely to increase our impact,” says Charlotte Melkert, co-founder of Equalture.

Twin sisters Charlotte and Fleur Melkert got their Eureka moment for Equalture after witnessing a series of biases in the hiring process. 

According to the founders, potential employers unfairly judge candidates based on their resume and appearance rather than their personality, passions, and talents.

According to research conducted by BCG, diverse teams generate 19 per cent more revenue.

Equalture: What you need to know

Equalture is on a mission to provide all candidates with an equal opportunity to get hired by getting to know them beyond what’s written on their CVs. 

The Dutch platform does this by building a library of scientifically-validated gamified assessments, which enables companies to get to know both their teams’ and their candidates’ cognitive skills, cultural preferences, and behaviours.

Candidates are asked to complete these gamified assessments, which take around 15 minutes to complete, at the start of the hiring process, which ensures a first impression based on science instead of gut. 

“More than 70 percent of Gen Zs and millennials no longer want to work at a company that doesn’t actively advance diversity, inclusion, and equality. We are also dealing with a huge shortage of talent and at the same time many new jobs due to technological developments – two different trends that both require looking more at the potential of applicants and less at the resume,” Fleur Melkert told mtsprout.nl.

Hundreds of companies are using Equalture’s platform, and Melkerts themselves also hire people using their own software. 

Currently, the company employs forty people from twenty nationalities, with 50-50 male/female distribution.