Leuven, New York, and Sydney: Spott is thinking big. The startup is redefining the capabilities of an ATS and a CRM in the age of AI
Spott, the Leuven-based startup, has closed a $21 million funding round led by the British firm Balderton Capital. The goal: to support its international expansion, develop features for large enterprises, and advance its capabilities in agent-based AI.
Hundreds of agencies in Europe, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region use Spott. Founded in 2024 and backed by Y Combinator, the company has raised $24.2 million—including a $21 million Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital. It is now one of Belgium’s fastest-growing startups.
Its motto? “Recruiting, without limits.” Founded in Leuven in 2024 by Lander Degreve, Manu Vanderveeren, and Samuel Smeys, Spott was born out of the experience its founders gained at recruitment firms while working for McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. They observed that the industry was under intense pressure to become more efficient, all while relying on outdated and fragmented technologies.
A Single Platform to Do It All
In fact, recruitment firms typically use ATS and CRM software to manage candidates, clients, and placements, often alongside separate tools for sourcing, outreach, note-taking, and scheduling. This situation often forces recruiters to manually transfer information from one system to another.
The idea? To consolidate these functions into a single platform natively designed for AI, combining candidate management, search, communication, outreach, and automation. The platform transforms information from emails, resumes, and recruitment processes into actionable and searchable data, building databases that can hold up to 2 million candidates.
A seamless and effortless process
In this highly specialized field, the main strength of Spott’s technology lies in its AI-powered matching system. It’s truly effective. Spott doesn’t just match keywords; it understands the context (skills, conversations, hiring patterns) to identify candidates who truly match the desired profile.
Spott captures and retains the context of every interaction (calls, emails, messages). Nothing slips through the cracks: the ATS stores the content of discussions, not just manually entered information.
Another advantage is the speed at which candidates are presented. Recruiters can quickly propose the best candidates to their clients. As one client agency noted, this speed “makes the entire process smooth and effortless.”
Finally, each workflow is designed with the realities of the recruiting profession in mind—from sourcing to placement—thus avoiding the imposition of a generic, traditional CRM model.
More than 300 agencies on the platform
The funding round led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Base10 Partners, Y Combinator, and Fortino, will enable the company to look further ahead. The company will use the funds from this Series A round to support its international expansion, develop features for large enterprises, and advance its capabilities in agent-based AI.
The company now has more than 300 agencies on its platform, and the majority of its revenue comes from abroad. Agencies such as United Consulting, CGP Group, and H.W. Anderson have joined Spott in recent months. This has led to theopening of offices in Sydney and New York.
The startup also plans to double its workforce (currently 30 employees) as well as its engineering capacity. It will also develop AI features designed to identify job openings, track candidates’ career progression, and recommend next steps.
