Mercor
AI-native hiring marketplace that interviews, scores, and matches candidates with companies automatically.
About
Mercor is an AI recruiting platform and talent marketplace built by college dropouts Brendan Foody, Surya Midha, and Adarsh Hiremath that has become one of the fastest-growing private AI companies: $100M raised at a $2B valuation in February 2025 (TechCrunch), followed by a $350M Series C at roughly a $10B valuation later in 2025. Candidates apply once — upload a resume, complete a 20-minute AI video interview (retakeable up to three times), get algorithmically scored — and are then matched across the marketplace without re-applying per role. Employers describe hiring needs in natural language while semantic search scans resumes, portfolios, GitHub, and interview transcripts; contracting and payments run in-platform. The company reports 300,000+ candidates processed, 100,000+ interviews conducted, and clients including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta. Reported contractor pay averages $85+/hour with specialists up to $300/hour, and Mercor states it does not sell interview data or train models on it. Caveats from contractor reviews: matching is competitive, verification does not guarantee steady offers, and phone verification blocks 100+ countries.
What it can do
- 20-minute AI video interviews with scoring
- Apply-once talent marketplace model
- Semantic candidate search across resumes, portfolios, and GitHub
- Natural-language hiring requirement intake
- Integrated contracting and contractor payroll
- Role-specific follow-up AI interviews
- Interview recordings with transcripts for employers
Setup
- For candidates: create a profile, upload a text-based resume, and complete the 20-minute AI interview.
- Get scored and enter the verified talent pool.
- For employers: describe hiring needs in natural language.
- Review AI-surfaced matches, watch interview recordings, and shortlist.
- Contract and pay through Mercor's platform.
Prerequisites
Candidates: a supported phone number for verification and a computer with camera/mic. Employers: hiring needs for engineering, research, or specialist contractor roles.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: $100M at $2B (Feb 2025) and $350M Series C at ~$10B reported by TechCrunch-linked press; 300,000+ candidates and 100,000+ interviews company-reported; client list (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Meta) reported; Apply-once model, 20-min AI interview, contractor pay ranges corroborated across review sources.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.