The hiring process has long faced criticism for being inefficient and opaque. Candidates spend hours crafting applications and cover letters, only to have them vanish into what often feels like a void. Generative AI has only added to the confusion, as employers increasingly rely on AI-powered screening tools to sort through a flood of submissions. Stockholm-based startup Fika Jobs believes there’s a better solution. The company is developing a video-first hiring platform that blends AI interview agents with short-form video profiles, creating an experience that feels like a hybrid of LinkedIn and TikTok. Rather than relying solely on resumes, candidates complete AI-driven interviews designed to highlight their personality and communication abilities. On Tuesday, Fika Jobs announced a $4 million pre-seed funding round, which will be used to further develop the platform, expand the team, and prepare for a broader launch later this year.

For job seekers, the process begins by connecting a LinkedIn profile. Fika’s AI reviews the candidate’s background and generates personalized interview questions. Candidates then complete a roughly 10-minute video interview with the AI agent, which is currently powered by Google’s Gemini models. After the interview, Fika automatically converts responses into short video clips and organizes them into a profile. Instead of applying to each new role individually, candidates maintain a live profile that employers can discover and revisit as new opportunities come up.

The concept originated from co-founders and brothers Jakob Dubois (CEO) and Alexander Dubois (CTO) while they were working on their previous startup. “We ended up speaking with him anyway, and within minutes, his grit, drive, and ambition became obvious. Exactly the kind of person we wanted to hire.”

That experience convinced the founders that some of the traits employers value most are difficult to capture on paper. Unlike most competitors (such as Alex, Maki, and Mercor), which focus on helping employers source, screen, and match candidates more efficiently using AI, Fika is building a platform where candidates maintain video-first profiles and employers browse a pool of people who have already been interviewed and evaluated by AI. 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 isn’t always obvious from a resume alone. Of course, video profiles introduce real risks of bias 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, despite its flaws, at least partially obscures. That’s why 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 reach around 10 employees by the end of the year. More than 100 companies are on the waitlist, according to 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 upfront, but Fika takes 10% of a candidate’s first-year salary upon a successful hire. (The company notes 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.