Berlin-based recruiting startup WhyBrilliant has secured a €1 million pre-seed round to scale its AI-powered hiring platform, expand its team, and grow its reach across Europe, as Vestbee was told.
- Founded in 2026 by Patrick Böert and Aleksander Heimrath, WhyBrilliant is a recruitment technology startup developing AI agents for talent sourcing and hiring.
- The company operates a two-sided platform for technology professionals and employers. Candidates complete a voice-based interview with an AI agent that builds a profile of their experience, skills, career objectives and job preferences.
- The system then monitors more than one million open vacancies across Germany, Austria and Switzerland and identifies roles that match the candidate’s profile.
- On the employer side, a separate AI agent helps companies define hiring requirements and source suitable candidates. Employers can request introductions to selected professionals, while candidates retain control over whether their information is shared and whether they engage with a company.
- WhyBrilliant generates revenue from employers through success-based hiring fees. Candidates use the platform free of charge. The company’s infrastructure is hosted in the European Union and it states that candidate data remains private unless consent is given for an introduction.
Details of the deal
The €1 million pre-seed round was led solely by Merantix Capital, a Berlin-based VC investing in AI startups across sectors such as enterprise software, healthcare, and automation.
"Patrick and Aleksander built the talent side of WhyBrilliant first, in quiet conversation with real candidates for months before any announcement. That sequencing tells you how they think. We are proud to lead the pre-seed and to have them building from the Merantix AI Campus," explains Dr. Rasmus Rothe, co-founder and GP of Merantix Capital.
