Clera is a San Francisco-based AI recruiting startup founded in 2025 by Alexander Farr (COO), Sebastian Scott (CEO), and Daniel Wintermeyer (CTO). The company raised a $3 million pre-seed round and says it surpassed $1 million in annualized revenue and represented more than 80,000 professionals within months of launching.
Instead of a job board or an ATS resume filter, Clera runs a conversational AI intake, over email, iMessage, or WhatsApp, that gathers a candidate's experience, preferences, and dealbreakers, then matches them against more than 600 venture-backed startups Clera has relationships with. When there's a fit, Clera arranges a direct introduction to the hiring manager with context on why the candidate fits, bypassing the generic Apply button and applicant-tracking-system queue entirely.
Clera is built for professionals (engineering, product, design, sales, and operations roles) targeting startup jobs, and for the venture-backed companies hiring them. The service is free for candidates with no subscription or hidden fee; companies pay a 15% success fee, split into three installments over 90 days, only when a hire is made.
