The best-funded HR-tech startups in the Netherlands in 2026

The Dutch HR-tech sector is home to a growing number of funded startups, spanning a range from early seed rounds to a full acquisition by an American platform. Twelve companies in the database illustrate how broad the field has become: from CV parsing and game-based assessments to microlearning and vacancy distribution via social media.

What stands out is that capital is heavily concentrated at the top end. Textkernel, acquired by Bullhorn in 2024, and TestGorilla, which closed a Series A in 2022, have attracted the largest funding volumes. The rest of the field operates with considerably more modest amounts, though serious investors are present there as well.

Below is an overview of the most well-funded players, what they do, and what their funding histories reveal about the broader market.

Textkernel and TestGorilla attract the largest capital

Textkernel has the largest funding volume in the overview. The Amsterdam-based company, founded in 2001, builds software for CV parsing, matching, and labour market data. Bullhorn acquired Textkernel in June 2024 for an amount recorded in the database as €300 million. Textkernel had more than 2,000 customers, including eight of the ten largest recruitment agencies in the world. The company was previously a portfolio company of Main Capital Partners.

TestGorilla ranks second with €81.2 million, raised in a Series A in 2022. The platform enables employers to screen candidates on the basis of skills tests. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Amsterdam.

Both companies focus on making the recruitment process more objective, albeit at different points in the chain. Textkernel works with CV data and matching infrastructure, while TestGorilla uses standardised assessments at the start of the selection process.

Assessments and selection form the most densely populated segment

A notably large group of companies focuses on improving or objectifying candidate selection. Harver (Amsterdam, founded 2015) raised a total of approximately €31 million, including €13.5 million in a Series B in 2019 with Insight Partners as lead investor. The platform offers predictive assessments for companies that hire at scale, with clients including Netflix, Uber, Booking.com, and Heineken.

Equalture (Rotterdam, 2017) took a different approach: game-based assessments designed to reduce unconscious bias. The company raised €6.8 million in a Series A. The Selection Lab (Amsterdam, 2018) works with AI-driven intake and planning and has raised a total of approximately €1.7 million across multiple rounds, including a €1.25 million round in July 2026 led by Borski Fund and Arches Capital. With 29 employees and more than 180 customers, including UWV and Spinnin' Records, it is one of the smaller but active players.

The fact that investors are putting money into these variations of assessment technology reflects broad demand: employers are looking for ways to make selection less dependent on CVs and job interviews alone.

Recruitment automation attracts its own investor base

Alongside selection, recruitment automation forms a distinct cluster. RecruitRobin (Utrecht, 2019) offers a single access point to candidates from twelve job sites. The database lists €10 million in funding, though the registration date (2015) does not match the founding year (2019), likely indicating a registration linked to an acquisition or restructuring.

Carv (Amsterdam, 2021) raised €9.8 million in a Series A in 2022 and focuses on automating administrative tasks for recruiters. Wonderkind (Amsterdam, 2016) converted job vacancies into social media advertisements targeting young talent and closed a Series A of €9.1 million in 2018.

Textmetrics (Arnhem, 2014) occupies a different position: it monitors the text quality of job postings and AI usage within organisations in real time, and raised €10.1 million in a Series A in early 2025.

Learning and development platforms form the youngest layer

The smallest funding amounts come from platforms focused on employee development. LeadWise (Zeist, 2023) raised €2.2 million in a pre-seed round in 2023 for a platform that teaches new managers leadership skills over ten weeks through microlearning and an AI coach. Workboost (The Hague, 2021) focused on developing soft skills through microlearning and gamification, raising a seed of €3.7 million in 2021.

Offilancer (Eindhoven, 2020) does not fit neatly into these categories: the platform focuses on hybrid work planning tailored to teams and office space. It raised €4 million in an angel round, though the database lists 2019 as the date, a year before the company was founded.

Funding amounts in this sub-segment are modest compared to assessment and recruitment tools, which is partly explained by the earlier development stage of most of these companies.

What the distribution reveals about investor interest

The overall picture shows a sector with a wide variation in maturity. Some companies have already completed multiple funding rounds and serve international clients at scale. Others are still operating on seed capital and are focused primarily on the Dutch market for now.

Amsterdam is clearly the centre of gravity: nine of the twelve companies are based there, with Rotterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem, Zeist, The Hague, and Eindhoven as scattered exceptions. Also notable is that virtually all companies mention AI as part of their proposition, from matching algorithms and game-based assessments to text recommendations and coaching.

For the broader Dutch tech scene, this field illustrates that HR-tech attracts investors who believe that recruitment and development can structurally become more data-driven and less dependent on subjective judgement. This is a trend visible in other European countries as well. Dutch funds such as Borski Fund and Main Capital Partners play a role alongside international parties such as Insight Partners. Whether the relatively modest amounts in the early layers of this field will eventually lead to exits comparable to Textkernel is a question that upcoming funding rounds will partly answer.