“For twenty years I dealt with hiring hundreds of people in retail, hospitality, and gastronomy, and we constantly ran into the same issue. Companies complained there weren’t enough candidates, while applicants complained that firms didn’t know how to communicate with them – often not replying at all. These two worlds were simply missing each other. Sometimes the problem was as trivial as an applicant not being able to answer the phone in time. We founded Talentiqa to speed up the initial interview and increase its success rate. Thanks to AI, we can now automate the most difficult part at scale – the first contact, verifying interest, and quickly connecting the right people with the right companies,” says Marek Dian, co-founder and CEO of Talentiqa.
The startup, which has just secured this key investment from Purple Ventures and Venture to Future Fund, was founded 2.5 years ago by Marek Dian, bringing hands-on business management experience, and Miro Šmelko, an experienced software developer. Until September, the project operated under the name Jobsider, testing different approaches and features in close collaboration with HR professionals. Thorough testing identified intelligent pre-screening as the core value, which is now the focus of Talentiqa. Development is taking place in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ireland, and the solution is already being tested in France and the USA.
“What impressed us most about Talentiqa were the strong founders with a deep understanding of the problem. The startup leverages AI very effectively to tackle recruitment in industries where traditional approaches fail. They already have the trust of major corporations, which is a strong signal that their product works and has international potential,” says Jan Staněk, Managing Partner of Purple Ventures.
Talentiqa uses its proprietary AI assistant technology to replace the first stage of recruitment – pre-screening. Its robust solution is powered by dozens of cooperating AI agents. Leveraging a company’s knowledge base, it adapts to each organization, ensuring the AI respects company culture and delivers a great candidate experience.
In practice, the AI assistant processes all job applications (including those without CVs), conducts an automated chat interview, verifies key and additional information (such as location, availability, or type of employment), and if the candidate meets the basic requirements, moves them directly to the next round. Candidates who don’t meet the criteria are still entered into the company’s system for potential use in other roles. The technology also ensures fair, unbiased recruitment, complies with strict rules, and protects the employer’s reputation.
This way, recruiters only receive truly relevant candidates, allowing them to focus on developing the hiring process further. The AI assistant integrates with standard HR systems, adapts to company language, and works 24/7 – including evenings and weekends when HR typically isn’t active but candidates are available.
“It’s common that job seekers are still employed elsewhere. When recruiters call them during regular business hours, they’re often unavailable, don’t answer, and risk being dropped from the process. Our system allows applicants to complete the pre-screening through a chat with the AI assistant whenever it suits them – even at night or on weekends – which is key to our excellent results,” adds Marek Dian.
The tool is particularly useful for companies hiring large volumes of manual workers, but it is increasingly adopted in retail, logistics, banking, food chains, energy, finance, and telecommunications.
“We are constantly hiring for dozens of our restaurants. The most demanding part was always the initial round of calls – recruiters often spent half of their working hours just trying to reach candidates, as there are so many and few pick up the phone on the first try. Thanks to Talentiqa and its unique solution, we’ve been able to significantly speed up and streamline this process. This gives us more time to personally engage with applicants where it makes the most sense,” says Kristýna Krouželová, HR Manager at Bageterie Boulevard, which started using Talentiqa last year.
