Inclusive hiring platform Sapia.ai (formerly known as PredictiveHire) has raised $17 million Series A funding in a round led by Macquarie Capital and Woolworths Group's W23 venture capital arm. Woolworths' participation comes after the group had been using Sapia's solution for 12 months and found that it improved candidate experience, according to Ingrid Maes, Managing Director of W23.

"Woolworths Group is always recruiting and we see tens of thousands of applications processed annually in our supermarket business. This new technology positively impacts bias during the recruitment process," Maes said. "Not only does it provide a flexible platform for our recruitment teams, we're really pleased with the experience our applicants have in the process ultimately delivering the hiring and equality outcomes we strive for across the Group."

Australia-based Sapia was founded in 2018 by CEO Barb Hyman, with the objective of removing bias from the hiring process by using AI to conduct and analyse text-based interviews.

According to the Sapia announcement, the fresh funding will be used for expanding the platform overseas, including making its services available in multiple languages.