A Manchester tech firm which aims to replace outdated CVs and job boards, has raised £1.7m in a seed round led by River Capital.
urfuture is building a new hiring infrastructure to combine a “social-first Gen Z” distribution engine with a proprietary behavioural science job matching algorithm. This, it said, would enable employers to identify higher-intent, more diverse candidates and reduce hiring bias.
The investment comes as youth employment and economic activity become a key part of the UK’s political agenda. Official figures show that almost 1m young people aged 16-24 are not in education, employment or training. Also that 45% of job seekers are using AI to help write or edit their CVs.
“The UK is rightly focused on how to get more young people earning or learning, but the infrastructure between education and employment is still broken,” explained Tom Keighley, Founder and CEO of urfuture.
“CVs don’t work for entry-level talent, job boards don’t reach this generation, and AI has made application volume harder to manage while reducing quality. We’re rebuilding that system from first principles, combining social distribution, behavioural science and AI to create a fairer, more effective way to connect young people to work. Our ambition is to become the front door to employment for the next generation.”
Keighley co-founded the firm with COO, Jayel Williams and CCO, Holly Hobbs.
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Since its launch in August, the platform has had more than 50,000 downloads and 160m social views. This has led to 2.4m behavioural data points collected through its matching platform.
It’s being used by companies including West Midlands Police, Tesco, British Airways and Scottish Power Electricity North West.
“At a time when youth unemployment is rising sharply particularly among 16–21-year-olds the need for accessible, high-quality career guidance has never been greater,” explained David Walters Investment Director for River Capital, which led the raise, with participation from SyndicateRoom’s Access fund, Manchester Angels, Fhunded, Solid Bond, Host Capital, and a number of sector specialist angels.
“This challenge is especially acute for those without strong personal or professional support networks. urfuture is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap, providing a scalable and engaging solution that empowers young people to explore entry-level roles, apprenticeships, and longer-term career pathways.
“The platform enables direct connections between candidates and employers through its app-based ecosystem, opening up opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach. By combining intuitive technology with a clear social mission, urfuture is helping to reshape how early-career talent is discovered and developed.”
The cash injection will be used to accelerate product development, including the launch of its white labelled behavioural profiling and screening infrastructure, which it hopes will “significantly reduce” manual screening time for employers.
The company will also expand its sales, marketing, and engineering team, and launch a self-serve product for SME and mid-market customers.
