# Karat Karat is a Creator-focused banking and payments based in Seattle, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Creator-focused banking and payments - **Headquarters:** Seattle, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Seattle, WA, United States - **Founded:** 2014 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** karat.com - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/karat ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Karat launched in 2014 after co-founder Jeffrey Spector, a former senior engineer, recognized the high failure rate of conventional technical interviews. Mohit Bhende, a Microsoft veteran, joined to scale the insight into a venture-backed company. The firm's sole operating unit is Karat Inc., headquartered in Seattle. It does not trade, manage outside capital, or operate as a family office. The service combines a proprietary interview infrastructure with a vetted network of Interview Engineers — practitioners trained in consistent rubric-based assessment. Karat delivers live video interviews, records sessions for later review, and generates structured feedback for clients. Early customers included Triplebyte and Palantir; by 2021 named enterprise clients included Roblox, Indeed, and Wayfair. The model covers software engineering, data science, and QA roles. Integration partnerships with applicant tracking systems like Greenhouse and Lever embed Karat directly into client hiring workflows. Karat has raised approximately $167 million across multiple funding rounds from investors including Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, and Base10 Partners. In October 2021, the firm closed a $110 million Series C led by Tiger Global, valuing the company at $1.1 billion (per the firm, October 2021). An earlier $28 million Series B closed in 2019. The team operates primarily from Seattle. A defining structural feature is Karat's separation from contingent recruiting. It charges clients per completed interview, not per hire. This shifts the economic incentive toward assessment quality, unlike contingency recruiters paid only on placement. The Interview Engineering model further detaches interview capacity from a client's own senior engineers, preserving internal focus while maintaining a consistent candidate experience. ## Sectors - Enterprise Software - AI/ML ## People - Mohit Bhende — Co-Founder & CEO - Jeffrey Spector — Co-Founder & President ## Questions ### What exactly does Karat charge for — is it per interview or per hire? Karat charges clients on a per-interview basis. The company explicitly separates interview delivery from hiring outcomes, which means it does not earn a placement fee. This model aligns its economic incentive with the quality and consistency of each assessment rather than the volume of offers accepted. ### Who actually conducts the interviews on Karat's behalf? Karat maintains a network of Interview Engineers — practicing software engineers trained in Karat's structured, rubric-based interview methodology. These engineers are not full-time employees of the end client. They conduct live, recorded video interviews and provide standardized feedback, allowing client companies to scale interview capacity without pulling their own senior engineers away from core work. ### Is Karat a staffing agency or a pure software company? Karat sits between a traditional staffing firm and a SaaS company. It does not source candidates or make hiring decisions. Instead, it delivers the technical interview as a service, combining a proprietary interview platform with a human network of trained interviewers. Revenue comes from interview volumes, not from software subscriptions or recruitment fees. ### What investment stages and specific investors has Karat attracted? Karat has raised venture funding across multiple rounds. In October 2021, it announced a $110 million Series C led by Tiger Global with participation from existing backers Norwest Venture Partners and Base10 Partners, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation. Prior rounds included a $28 million Series B in 2019. ### Does Karat handle interviews for roles beyond software engineering? Karat's primary domain is technical interviewing for software engineering roles, but the company has expanded into adjacent areas including data science and quality assurance. The core methodology of rubric-based, structured assessment applies across these technical disciplines, and client demand has driven incremental category coverage. ## Related profiles - [Fransyl](https://altss.com/profile/fransyl) - [Limit Break](https://altss.com/profile/limit-break) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/karat-inc Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology