An AI interviewer being built on interview data, not CVs

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

While running a developer marketplace, Ahmed Ghelle faced an overwhelming volume of applicants. His team built an internal AI tool to screen engineers, which proved so effective that clients became more interested in the screening tech than the marketplace.

This led to a pivot, creating Merra to solve the hiring crisis they experienced first-hand.

😟 Problem

High-volume recruiting faces a severe bottleneck. A single job post can attract thousands of applicants, making it impossible for recruiters to speak with everyone.

Teams rely on rigid CV screening tools that often reject qualified talent. Data shows 75% of candidates report being “ghosted” by employers due to a lack of bandwidth, damaging the company’s brand.

💡 Solution

Merra replaces manual first-round interviews with a conversational AI that operates 24/7, with a model that will be trained on interview data to evaluate diverse accents and speech patterns fairly. This aims to give hiring teams the capacity to screen thousands of candidates simultaneously without scheduling.

The platform will:

• Provide a data-backed shortlist for recruiters.
• Conduct adaptive, conversational interviews.
• Score candidates from 0–100 on specific skills.
• Provide detailed summaries, video recordings, and transcripts.
• Automatically give constructive feedback to every rejected applicant.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

📊 Market size

Merra is targeting the top 1% of employers, representing 20,000 high-volume companies. This creates an initial serviceable obtainable market of over US$80.5 million.

This serves as an entry point into a US$3.3 billion addressable market of mid-market employers in the UK, EU, and US. The broader global talent acquisition software market is valued at US$12.7 billion.

🤝 Team

• Ahmed Ghelle: Founder and CEO. Led the company’s pivot. He drives product, sales, and partnerships, securing early traction and an ElevenLabs grant.
• Mazka Buana Hidayat: Chief AI officer. An AI Engineer and winner of ElevAIte Indonesia. He built the core interview flow, adaptive questioning, and evaluation model.
• Samuel Steven Prisma: CTO. An Apple Developer Academy alumnus. He architects the scalable cloud infrastructure and leads full-stack engineering.

🚀 Traction

🏆 Competition

💰 Financials