Juicebox Raises $30M From Sequoia To Revolutionize Hiring With LLM-Powered Search
Recruiting is entering a new era as Juicebox raises $30M from Sequoia to revolutionize hiring with LLM-powered search. The startup is transforming how companies discover top talent, replacing keyword-driven résumé scans with AI that understands context, skills, and real experience.
Image Credits:Juicebox
From Student Idea To Startup Powerhouse
Juicebox was co-founded by David Paffenholz and Ishan Gupta, who started building the platform at just 22 and 19 years old. They realized that large language models (LLMs) could search beyond résumés—analyzing professional profiles, personal websites, and public data to find candidates who are the best match for a role.
The startup gained traction after joining Y Combinator in 2022. By late 2023, its flagship AI search engine, PeopleGPT, had become a go-to tool for both small startups and major companies like Cognition, Ramp, and Perplexity.
Rapid Growth And Strong Adoption
In less than two years, Juicebox scaled to over 2,500 customers and surpassed $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). This momentum set the stage for its Series A raise, bringing total funding to $36 million, with $30 million led by Sequoia Capital.
Why Sequoia Backed Juicebox
Sequoia partner David Cahn first heard about Juicebox from an early-stage founder who credited the platform with making multiple hires—without needing a professional recruiter. That success story caught Cahn’s attention.
His interest grew when he learned that Sequoia’s own recruiting team had started using Juicebox to identify candidates. Seeing its impact firsthand, Cahn called the startup’s growth potential “too significant to ignore.”
The Future Of Hiring With AI
With fresh funding, Juicebox plans to expand its AI capabilities and help companies hire faster and smarter. Instead of endless résumé scanning, recruiters can now use LLM-powered search to find the right person with natural language queries—cutting down time-to-hire and improving candidate matches.
As AI continues to disrupt industries, Juicebox stands at the forefront of reshaping the future of recruitment.
