urfuture raises £1.7m seed to overhaul entry-level hiring using social, behavioural data
This article covers urfuture, a Manchester-based hrtech startup, which has raised £1.7m in a seed funding round to rebuild how employers find and screen entry-level talent. The funding will support product development and team expansion and aims to help employers, including SMEs and mid-market firms, more effectively recruit and screen young people entering the workforce.
urfuture, a Manchester-based hrtech startup, has raised £1.7m in a seed funding round to rebuild how employers find and screen entry-level talent. The company says the capital will be used to speed product development, grow sales, marketing and engineering teams, and launch a self-serve product aimed at SMEs and mid-market employers.
Why it matters
Youth employment and the transition from education to work are high on the UK policy agenda. The company points to 957,000 young people aged 16 to 24 recorded as not in education, employment or training in October to December 2025, and research showing 45% of job seekers use AI to help write or edit CVs. Those trends complicate hiring: CVs and traditional job boards struggle to reach or fairly assess many entry-level candidates, while AI can increase application volumes without improving candidate quality.
A platform that reduces screening time and bias while targeting younger cohorts could alter recruitment dynamics for large employers and SMEs alike, particularly as government and industry look for scalable ways to connect young people to work.
Inside the product
urfuture combines a social-first distribution engine targeting Gen Z with a behavioural-science matching algorithm intended to replace CVs and job-board approaches for entry-level roles. Since launching in August, the app has recorded over 50,000 downloads and more than 160 million social views. The company says it has collected 2.4 million behavioural data points through its matching platform.
Employers using the platform include West Midlands Police, Tesco, British Airways and Scottish Power Electricity North West — examples of large public and private employers testing the approach to source higher-intent candidates. urfuture cites a case in which one employer increased diversity in its applicant pool from 8% to 47% after using the platform.
Product plans funded by the round include a white-labelled behavioural profiling and screening infrastructure to reduce manual screening, and a self-serve product for SMEs and mid-market customers to manage application volumes more effectively.
Who are the investors?
The seed round was led by River Capital and included participation from SyndicateRoom’s Access fund, Manchester Angels, Fhunded, Solid Bond, Host Capital and a number of sector specialist angels.
In the announcement, David Walters, Investor at River Capital, said:
We are pleased to announce our investment in urfuture a platform addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing the UK today: supporting young people in making informed career choices. 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. 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.
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Founder perspective
urfuture was founded by Tom Keighley, who has worked in the talent space since 2011, alongside co-founders Jayel Williams (COO) and Holly Hobbs (CCO). The team says it has also supported government-backed campaigns to engage young people at scale.
In the announcement, Tom Keighley, Co-founder & CEO at urfuture, said:
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. 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.
The bigger picture
The raise comes as startups and policy makers look for practical interventions to reduce youth unemployment and better link education to work. urfuture’s approach — combining social reach, behavioural profiling and automation — reflects a broader move in recruitment technology away from CV-first screening toward more signal-driven matching.
The deal also signals continuing interest from UK hrtech investors in products that aim to scale hiring for younger cohorts and to offer employers tools to manage growing application volumes. If urfuture can translate early traction with large employers into repeatable SME products, it will join a wave of firms attempting to plug the persistent gap between education and employment across the UK.
They've invested in urfuture
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| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 River Capital | 6 investments investments | 4 contacts contacts | |||
 SyndicateRoom's Access fund | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Manchester Angels | 3 investments investments | more info | |||
 Host Capital | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
SyndicateRoom's Access Fund | 1 investment investment | more info |
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