ToFu Secures $1.2 Million to Accelerate Hiring for Tech Startups

Tofu, headquartered in Toronto, is on a mission to streamline the process of connecting technology companies with qualified candidates who have been vetted but not hired by other firms.In the past fifteen months, Tofu has been dedicated to developing a talent marketplace tailored to this purpose. Today, the startup's platform facilitates collaboration among more than 170 companies, enabling them to share talent resources. Through this initiative, Tofu has facilitated numerous successful job placements for tech professionals while saving participating firms significant time in the recruitment process.

Speaking exclusively to BetaKit, Tofu's co-founder and CEO, Jason Zoltak, highlighted the platform's impact in facilitating efficient talent acquisition and fostering collaboration within the tech industry.Armed with $1.2 million CAD in pre-seed funding from Night Capital, along with support from two other San Francisco-based investors and Kitchener-Waterloo’s Garage Capital, Tofu is gearing up to expand its marketplace and bolster its team with new product and engineering hires.

The funding round, which closed earlier this month through a simple agreement for future equity, represents Tofu's first external capital infusion.Night Capital led the round, with participation from Garage Capital, Wayfinder Ventures, Ritual Capital, and angel investor Deva Santiago, who brings extensive experience from companies like Rippling, Weebly, and Dropbox, and currently serves as the VP of talent at Tailscale.Tofu's vision is to incentivize companies to share the talent they've assessed during the hiring process with other firms. 

Zoltak, who co-founded Tofu with CTO Jonathan Perez in late 2022, highlighted the significant amount of time and resources businesses invest in interviewing candidates they ultimately don't hire. Similarly, job seekers often spend considerable time being vetted for roles they don't ultimately land, sometimes due to reasons unrelated to their skills. Tofu aims to streamline this process by facilitating talent sharing among companies, saving time and resources for both employers and job seekers.

Zoltak's vision is to streamline the hiring process by leveraging the talent information gathered during interviews, thereby reducing duplicative efforts and connecting candidates with companies more efficiently. He highlighted the surplus of quality candidates seeking new roles amid tech firms downsizing, presenting an opportunity for companies to hire talent more effectively despite market challenges.Tofu facilitates connections between businesses and candidates who were previously considered by other firms but not hired. Employers can access information shared by candidates, such as work history and skills, to make informed hiring decisions.

Tofu offers subscription-based or per-hire fee models, and companies that list vetted candidates receive hiring credits to offset future costs."The product is unique and already delivering great results to talent teams, while delighting applicants with additional opportunities that are very relevant to their job hunt,” Night Capital founder and general partner Kevin Carter told BetaKit. “The marketplace taps into a latent supply of job seekers that are qualified and actively looking. Jason and team have built an intuitive product that creates a new and more efficient way to hire.”

Before launching Tofu, Zoltak spent just over a year working as a general manager with Shiftsmart, a well-funded New York-based workforce management software startup that has developed a marketplace to match shift workers with employers.At Shiftsmart, Zoltak noticed that some of the things that the company was doing could be applied to the white-collar jobs market. Sensing an opportunity, Zoltak left Shiftsmart in late 2022 and launched Tofu, teaming up with Perez, who Zoltak said brings an engineering background that complements his own experience in operations.

“It’s rare to find the level of passion and persistence that co-founders Jason and Jon display towards an industry that is often overlooked and ignored by the venture world,” Garage Capital co-founder and general partner Mike McCauley told BetaKit. “Tofu is creating a new model for discovering and hiring talent. They are putting up real results and Garage is excited to be supporting their growth trajectory.”

Zoltak claimed that Tofu can connect companies to qualified candidates within minutes, and help those companies hire folks in as little as 10 days. “Tofu is designed for speed and quality, and it’s something that some other platforms just haven’t been able to crack,” he claimed.Tofu is currently targeting seed to Series F-stage tech companies, but the nascent startup has even bigger ambitions, which involve catering to enterprise firms across a wider array of sectors. “We want to get every company in the world on Tofu,” said Zoltak.