Clado
Category: AI in HR & Talent
Clado is an AI-powered global people search platform enabling deep research and profile enrichment for teams, with access to over 800 million professional profiles. Clado was founded in 2024. The company is led by Tom Zheng. Based in San Francisco, United States. Team size: 7. Total funding raised: $2 million. Latest round: Seed. Key investors include Valor Equity Partners, David Schmaier (Salesforce), Y Combinator.
- Founded
- 2024
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, United States
- Team size
- 7
- Total funding
- $2 million
Value proposition
Leverages 100,000+ AI agents to deliver accurate, real-time people search and data enrichment, streamlining talent acquisition and sales outreach with state-of-the-art email enrichment and search capabilities
Products and solutions
People search tools, Profile enrichment AI, Enterprise recruitment solutions, Atlas platform for deep research, Email enrichment and contact finding
Unique value
Deployment of 100,000+ AI agents for dynamic people search; proprietary algorithms for real-time profile enrichment; agentic search approach using natural language descriptions instead of keyword filters
Target customer
Sales teams, recruiters, hiring managers, researchers, and venture capitalists
Industries served
Recruitment/HR Tech, Sales/Lead Generation, Academic Research, Venture Capital, Corporate Talent Strategy
Technology advantage
YC X25 alumni team with AI/ML expertise; scalable infrastructure for global data processing; claimed state-of-the-art performance in people matching and contact information retrieval; unified profile system combining data from multiple social platforms
How they differentiate
Clado deploys over 100,000 AI agents for proactive people search and candidate identification using natural language queries, focusing on sales & recruitment teams. Competitors like ZoomInfo emphasize B2B contact databases while SeekOut focuses on talent intelligence.
Main competitors
Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, SeekOut, HireEZ, Clearbit, Lusha
Key partnerships
Y Combinator (YC X25 cohort), Valor Equity Partners (strategic investment), Integration with major CRM and recruiting platforms
Notable customers
Turing, Mercor, Various YC portfolio companies
Major milestones
YC X25 Y Combinator batch acceptance, $2M seed funding (November 2025), Acquisition of Jaimy for $3M in stock, Launch of Atlas platform, Integration with major CRM platforms
Growth metrics
Not publicly disclosed (private company)
Market positioning
Positioned as an innovative AI recruitment platform leveraging Y Combinator backing, targeting tech-forward teams needing scalable talent acquisition solutions with advanced AI-powered search capabilities
Geographic focus
Primarily U.S.-based with global reach through digital platforms, competing with enterprise SaaS providers in major tech hubs
Patents and IP
Not publicly disclosed
About Tom Zheng
Co-founder at Clado (YC X25), previously studied at UCSD, has extensive experience building data-driven platforms and leveraging AI for complex research challenges. Won Canada's largest data science and physics competitions.
Official website: https://www.clado.ai/