pre-seed · raising now · EU + US
AI agents are entering recruiting. They need shared rails to negotiate, match, and settle — compliantly, globally. ADNX is that infrastructure.
Problem → how we solve it
No shared standards, black-box matching, compliance minefields, bespoke integrations. ADNX fixes each with open protocols, bilateral agent negotiation, built-in compliance, and one-integration network access.
Every ATS and job board uses different schemas. Agents can't interoperate.
MIT-licensed specs for talent and jobs. 40+ structured signals per side. Machine-readable.
Centralized keyword scoring. No bilateral negotiation. No audit trails.
Each side has an autonomous agent with hard constraints and soft preferences. Agents iterate until match or pass.
EU AI Act (high-risk, €35M fines), NYC Local Law 144, Illinois AIPA, Colorado AI Act. Every market is regulating AI hiring. No one has built compliant infra.
Immutable audit trails, human-override logs, compliance vault. Works across jurisdictions — EU, US, global. Built in, not bolted on.
Every agent integration is bespoke. This is the pre-Stripe era of recruiting.
Integrate once — agents discover, match, and settle with any node. Network effects compound.
Model & traction
ADNX Hire — lightweight hiring interface for SMBs. Not another ATS — agents do the sourcing, screening, and matching via the network. The employer just reviews and decides. Tiered freemium model. 57M SMBs in US + EU (SBA, Eurostat) — vast majority lack dedicated hiring tools. Every signup = a new node.
Network fees — percentage of first-year salary on every hire settled through ADNX. Small at first, dominant at scale. This is the Stripe model.
Agency white-label — agencies run their own agents on ADNX rails. Per-seat pricing.
Private beta — ADNX network live, bilateral negotiation working
Protocols published — OTP + OJP, MIT licensed, A2A-compatible
EU AI Act ready — compliant by design
Revenue model details, unit economics, and financial projections available in the full IC memo upon request.
AI agents are entering hiring — they need shared rails, not more point-to-point APIs
Regulation is accelerating globally — EU AI Act high-risk enforcement from 2026 (Omnibus may extend to late 2027, but backstop deadlines hold). NYC LL144 already active. Illinois AIPA, Colorado AI Act imminent. Every market needs compliant rails — the direction is clear regardless of timing.
No compliant rail exists — first mover sets the standard. Compliance is the moat.
€2.5M Post-Money SAFE · €12.5M cap · 20% discount · MFN
20% dilution (fully diluted, incl. 10% ESOP reserved) · Pro-rata at €100K+
~24 months runway — Berlin-based, EU launch, DACH-concentrated sales
Investment thesis
EU AI Act classifies AI hiring as high-risk (Annex III). Original high-risk enforcement: August 2026. The EU Digital Omnibus package (proposed Feb 2025) may extend this to late 2027 — but backstop deadlines ensure enforcement regardless, and US regulations (NYC LL144, Illinois AIPA, Colorado AI Act) proceed independently. Even under delay, SaaS revenue is deadline-agnostic and early adopters gain advantage. This is not a discretionary purchase — it's a regulatory mandate on a known trajectory.
Open protocols (MIT-licensed) maximize adoption. Monetization happens at the proprietary execution layer: negotiation engine, compliance vault, settlement. Each SMB on ADNX Hire and each agency on white-label adds a node. Unlike LinkedIn's walled garden, ADNX is neutral infrastructure.
ADNX Hire is not a standalone SaaS business — it's a distribution mechanism. Every SMB onboarded becomes a network node. Free tier generates liquidity even without conversion. The "customer" is actually inventory for the network. This inverts the typical SaaS acquisition cost model.
Competitive landscape
Enterprise ATS (Personio, Workday) are walled gardens. Agentic tools (LinkedIn, SeekOut) are application-layer. SMB HR-tech lacks agent capabilities. AI RegTech is horizontal. None offer open infrastructure with matching, compliance, and settlement.
Personio, Workday, SAP, Greenhouse. Walled gardens. No agent interop. Could ship a compliance module — but that's a feature inside their garden, not a network. ADNX integrates with Personio; at scale, it becomes the neutral layer Personio's competitors also connect to.
LinkedIn Hiring Asst, SeekOut, hireEZ. Application layer, not infrastructure. LinkedIn's incentive is walled garden, not open rails. These tools need ADNX more than they compete with it.
Factorial, BambooHR, HiBob. No agentic capabilities. No compliance vault. No network effects. Simple tools for a pre-agent world.
Holistic AI, OneTrust. Horizontal, not hiring-specific. No transaction infrastructure. Compliance only — no matching, no settlement, no network.
Value creation plan
Hire engineering team + compliance counsel. Launch ADNX Hire public beta in DACH. First network placements. OTP/OJP working group with ATS vendors. Founder transitions full-time post-close.
Scale to 200 SMBs, 15+ agencies. Ship ATS integrations (Personio, Greenhouse, Recruitee). Demonstrate PLG conversion and network placement metrics. Hit €600K ARR → position for seed round.
1,500+ SMBs. Network transaction fees compounding. Raise seed at €15M+ pre-money. Begin Nordics expansion. Build US compliance modules. Enterprise agency sales motion.
If agentic infrastructure is your thesis, we'd love to connect.
We'd love to share more about ADNX and the round.