The company, which aims to match engineers in India with startups in need of coding assistance, has experienced rapid growth and profitability in a short span of time.

Mercor was launched in January 2023 by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, who were classmates in high school. Their side hustle quickly gained traction, generating a revenue run rate of $1 million within a few months and a profit of $80,000 without any external financial support.

Using artificial intelligence, Mercor's software efficiently vets and interviews job candidates, subsequently matching them to suitable open positions. To date, the platform has conducted over 100,000 interviews, evaluating 300,000 individuals in under two years. Despite their young age of 21, Foody, Hiremath, and Midha have dropped out of school and become Thiel Fellows while managing a rapidly growing business, experiencing a 50% month-over-month growth rate.

The recent funding round, totaling $32 million in Series A funding, was led by Benchmark and included investments from influential personalities such as billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and two OpenAI board directors, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Victor Lazarte, the newest partner at Benchmark, has also joined Mercor's board.

Mercor's platform allows applicants to upload their resumes and participate in a 20-minute video interview with the company's AI. The AI assesses the candidate's experience and presents a relevant case study for discussion, enabling Mercor to match suitable candidates to available jobs across their marketplace. The company primarily draws talent from India, although the United States is also a significant talent pool. Job opportunities span various fields, including engineering, product development, design, operations, and content creation.

Foody, Mercor's CEO, expressed their vision of solving the inefficiencies in the global labor market, providing opportunities to talented individuals worldwide. By applying large language models and automating talent assessment processes, Mercor aims to create a more meritocratic and efficient hiring system.

The startup's ability to predict applicant performance has already surpassed that of human recruiters, demonstrating Mercor's potential to revolutionize the hiring process. Foody revealed that the company will soon publish a methodology paper detailing their groundbreaking approach. They also aim to expand their predictive capabilities to automate longer-term performance reviews and talent cultivation for employers.

Mercor's founders, who initially bonded over their passion for policy debate, are determined to create a more meritocratic job market by leveraging advanced technology. The success of their previous businesses and their dedication to addressing unfair hiring practices led to the creation of Mercor. The founders moved from New York to San Francisco to work on their startup full-time, attracting investments and gaining recognition as Thiel Fellows.

While Mercor faces competition from well-capitalized talent market players like Andela, as well as traditional outsourcing companies utilizing off-the-shelf AI tools, the company remains focused on creating better jobs and opportunities for people. Benchmark believes that Mercor has the potential to match workers to high-quality, full-time positions while tackling the challenge of maintaining the interest of both job seekers and employers on their platform.

The team at Mercor is optimistic about achieving their mission of creating a unified global labor market that matches individuals with their ideal jobs. With their unique AI-based talent matching solution and significant funding, the startup aspires to provide job opportunities to billions of people, improving their overall quality of life.

As Mercor continues its impressive growth trajectory, it remains to be seen how the startup will navigate the dynamic talent market and solidify its position as a leading AI-based talent matching platform.