Juicebox Secures $80 Million in Funding at an $850 Million Valuation
March 23, 2026 – AI recruiting platform Juicebox has announced $80 million in Series B funding at an $850 million valuation led by DST Global, with meaningful participation from Sequoia, Coatue, Y Combinator, NFDG, and Verified Capital. The company has tripled ARR since its Series A in July 2025, and now serves 5,000 customers spanning fast-growing technology companies and Fortune 100 brands, with customers reporting up to 90 percent less time spent identifying top candidates.
To date, Juicebox has powered more than 560,000 searches and engaged over 3 million candidates. Juicebox was founded by David Paffenholz and Ishan Gupta. The new funding will go toward accelerating product development, expanding enterprise go-to-market, and building out an international presence, starting with a London office later this year.
“Recruiting is going through its biggest shift in decades, and most teams haven’t caught up yet,” said Mr. Paffenholz, CEO of Juicebox. “The old model isn’t working, both for employers buried in applications that aren’t the right fit and for candidates who never hear back. Companies getting ahead are treating talent acquisition like an outbound engine, with recruiters and agents working hand-in-hand to target the best candidates.”
AI tools have made it easier than ever for candidates to flood companies with applications. The average job opening now receives nearly 250 applications, and inbound pipelines at companies of every size are buckling under the weight of low-intent, poorly matched candidates. The companies responding most effectively have stopped trying to fix inbound and are proactively identifying and engaging the right candidates. “Juicebox is the AI recruiting platform that helps them identify and reach top candidates directly, before they ever apply,” Mr. Paffenholz said.
“Building a talent function from scratch at a hyper-growth startup means I need to rely on tools that actually keep up,” said Patrick Circelli, head of talent at Cognition. “Juicebox’s agents are helping us uncover candidates we wouldn’t have found otherwise, and with the kind of quality that allows us to grow faster than any other company.”
Juicebox deploys agents to search across a comprehensive talent graph, surface candidates who match open roles, and reach them with targeted outreach at a speed and scale no human team could maintain on its own.
Hunt Scanlon Launches HSiQ Talent Intelligence Advisory Unit
HSiQ, a data-driven, AI-enabled talent intelligence platform that delivers real-time competitive intelligence, deep people analytics, and strategic leadership insights to enterprises across financial services, private equity, multinationals, and executive search. With HSiQ, organizations will have access to a powerful new engine that combines proprietary data, original research, and market-wide benchmarking to inform strategic hiring, leadership planning, and succession decisions.
HSiQ is led by Richard Stein, whose 20-plus-year career spans building businesses, advising on human capital strategy, and delivering executive search and talent management solutions for leading global firms. “Most companies don’t lose time and money because they hired the wrong person — they lose it because they hired too fast,” Mr. Stein said. “Executive hiring isn’t a race. It is a strategy. It is chess, not checkers.”
“Juicebox is transforming how companies find and hire talent,” said Saurabh Gupta, co-founder at DST Global. “The strength of the product David and Ishan have built is clear from its rapid adoption and the exceptional love its customers feel for it, from high-growth technology companies to global financial institutions and traditional enterprises. DST Global is delighted to partner with Juicebox as they build the intelligent automated tools that the recruiting industry has needed for decades.”
Related: From Experimentation to Infrastructure: How AI is Redefining Executive Search
DST Global is a private investment firm focused on venture capital and private equity, specializing in late-stage investments in high-growth internet and technology companies. Founded in 2009 by Yuri Milner, the firm invests globally across sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, and digital media, and has backed a number of prominent companies including Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba, and Spotify.
Past Funding
Last September, Juicebox announced $36 million in funding, including our $30 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital. Coatue, NFDG, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, and BOND also participated.
“The race for talent has never been more intense,” said Mr. Paffenholz. “In the last year, AI labs have started to look like star-studded sports teams. Billions of dollars are being poured into securing the best talent. These eye-popping figures reflect a deeper truth: human ingenuity is the ultimate scarce resource in the age of AI. That’s why recruiting is a zero sum game. You either compete, or you lose.”
“We call it the talent war,” Mr. Paffenholz said. “Juicebox is on a mission to help teams win the talent war. Recruiting is shifting from manual, repetitive tasks to AI-native workflows. For every search, Juicebox scores tens of thousands of profiles, assessing candidates against your criteria in real-time. From there, Juicebox’s AI handles outreach and engagement. For a fully autonomous experience, Juicebox Agents automate that entire workflow. After an initial calibration, Agents run search, assessment, and outreach for you – 24/7.”
“Juicebox is the first sourcing tool that I’ve seen that adds value,” said Rich Adao, head of talent at Anyscale. “We find candidates in half the time, and they’re the best candidates we found vs other platforms.”
Related: How Executives Are Using AI to Gain a Competitive Edge
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
