Karat
Karat is a Seattle-based enterprise talent measurement company that conducts technical interviews on behalf of large employers using a global network of trained Interview Engineers, serving 25 of the largest public companies with AI-enabled evaluation and benchmarking analytics.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersSeattle, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Karat does
Karat Inc. is a Seattle-based talent measurement company founded in 2014 that provides technical interview assessments to enterprise engineering organizations. The company's core service deploys a global network of 500+ trained and vetted Interview Engineers (IVEs) across 70+ countries to conduct live, structured technical interviews on behalf of client companies, with an underlying dataset of 600,000+ interviews powering benchmarking and analytics. Its product portfolio spans Karat Interview for direct engineering hiring, Partner Talent for contractor and IT service provider quality management, Karat Qualify for top-of-funnel screening, Hiring Insights for cross-company benchmarking, and Karat NextGen, a December 2025 product launch that integrates generative AI assistants into the interview environment to assess engineer proficiency in AI-augmented development workflows. Karat also operates the Brilliant Black Minds DEI program with 10,000+ Black software engineers and hiring partnerships at major employers.
Karat monetizes through annual enterprise subscriptions with quote-based custom pricing tied to interview volume and feature access. The go-to-market is sales-led, combining enterprise field sales targeting CTOs and VPs of Engineering at Fortune 500 companies with inside sales supported by extensive content marketing (research reports, webinars, customer stories). Customer evidence indicates penetration of 25 of the 25 largest public companies globally, with named logos spanning Financial Services (Citi, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Citizens, HSBC, Bread Financial, Cigna, Travelers, PayPal), major technology platforms (Atlassian, Figma, MongoDB, Splunk, Indeed, Lyft, Uber, Intuit), and adjacent verticals (Compass, Deliveroo, Duolingo, Electronic Arts, Flatiron Health, Hippo, AvidXchange). Disclosed capital raised totals approximately $169M across rounds led by 8VC, Norwest, and Tiger Global, with a strategic investment from Serena Williams in 2022. The company has executed two acquisitions (Triplebyte in 2023, Byteboard in 2025) to consolidate skills-based technical assessment capabilities.
Karat firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Karat
- Legal name
- Karat Inc.
- Website
- https://karat.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Short description
- Karat is a Seattle-based enterprise talent measurement company that conducts technical interviews on behalf of large employers using a global network of trained Interview Engineers, serving 25 of the largest public companies with AI-enabled evaluation and benchmarking analytics.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Karat industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Technical Assessment Software
- SIC
- Services-Employment Agencies (7361)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Pre-Employment Screening & Aptitude Testing (BPACAMAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Skills & Job-Specific Competency Testing (Hard Skills) (BPACAMAD), Skills Assessment & Talent/Employability Testing Platforms (EDAFADAM)
Keywords
Where Karat is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Seattle
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Karat business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Technical Interview Services: B2B SaaS model providing technical interview assessments for enterprise hiring. Revenue generated through subscription/contract arrangements with engineering organizations for conducting interviews and providing hiring intelligence.
- Partner Talent Solutions: Contractor screening and quality assessment services for enterprises and IT Service Providers, helping measure talent quality and benchmark provider performance.
- Hiring Insights: Talent intelligence and analytics platform providing competitive benchmarking, market insights, and workforce transformation intelligence.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise subscription with custom pricing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels8 records
Karat product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Karat provides expert-led, AI-enabled technical interview assessments and talent intelligence for enterprise engineering organizations. Its certified Interview Engineers conduct live, structured technical interviews on behalf of client companies, evaluating software engineers against consistent rubrics and producing benchmarking data derived from a dataset of more than 600,000 interviews across 70+ countries.
Product overview
Karat operates as a talent elevation platform offering a portfolio of interconnected hiring solutions. The core offering centers on Karat Interview (direct hiring), which provides expert-led technical interviews conducted by certified Interview Engineers. Supporting this are Partner Talent for contractor quality management, Karat NextGen for AI-era talent evaluation, Hiring Insights for analytics and benchmarking, and Karat Qualify as a top-of-funnel screening tool. Brilliant Black Minds serves as a purpose-driven DEI program. These products share a common data foundation of 600,000+ technical interviews and work together to cover the full hiring lifecycle from screening through hiring decisions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Brilliant Black Minds: Karat's flagship purpose program offering free mock technical interviews to software engineers, with a focus on supporting talent historically underrepresented in tech. The program aims to add over 100,000 Black engineers in the next decade.
Products and services
- Karat Interview (Direct Hiring)
- Partner Talent Contractor screening and quality management solution that helps enterprises measure talent quality, benchmark IT service providers, and strengthen contractor ROI through standardized technical evaluations. Targeted at enterprises managing large external contractor workforces and vendor relationships.
- Karat NextGen (AI Readiness) Human-led, AI-enabled talent evaluation solution that assesses software engineers' ability to work effectively in AI-augmented environments, measuring AI proficiency, technical communication, productivity, and product sense. Uses a production-grade codebase environment with an integrated AI assistant in a VS Code-based IDE.
- Hiring Insights Talent acquisition analytics platform providing benchmarking data, competitive intelligence, and hiring quality metrics derived from Karat's cross-company dataset of 600,000+ technical interviews. Used by engineering leaders for workforce planning and hiring bar calibration.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3x higher onsite-to-offer ratio
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use Karat
Customer profileNamed customers24 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Karat technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature7 records
Karat partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Financial Services OrganizationscoreKarat conducted surveys of US tech leaders at financial services companies finding that 73% report AI-native engineers are worth three times their compensation. Karat CEO Mohit Bhende emphasized AI opportunities for financial services companies to modernize legacy systems.
- VisaflagshipVisa is collaborating with Karat to develop tools that help creators manage finances and streamline operations. The partnership may include automation and fraud prevention tools for the creator economy.
- ByteboardcoreKarat acquired Byteboard, a skills-based technical assessment platform, to enhance hiring solutions and support AI transformation in tech workplaces. The acquisition aims to enable better evaluation of candidate proficiency in AI tools and building AI-enabled products, especially for Fortune 500 companies.
- UberflagshipUber is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
- IntuitflagshipIntuit is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
- ZillowflagshipZillow is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
- Goldman SachsflagshipGoldman Sachs is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
- CitizensflagshipCitizens Bank is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
- Rocket CompaniesflagshipRocket Companies is a Partner of Brilliance hiring partner for Brilliant Black Minds, committed to supporting and hiring software engineers from the Black engineering community.
Scale indicators16 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Karat competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- HackerRank: HackerRank is a technical assessment platform that provides coding tests, skill validation, and hiring solutions for engineering candidates. It directly competes with Karat on skills-based technical evaluation for enterprise hiring.
- CodeSignal: CodeSignal offers a technical assessment platform with coding tests, AI-powered scoring, and interview solutions used by enterprises for engineering hiring. It is a direct competitor to Karat's pre-hire skills assessment and live interview offerings.
- Codility: Codility provides an online skills assessment platform for technical hiring, focused on coding tests and recruiting analytics for engineering teams. It competes directly with Karat Qualify and Karat's skills-based screening offerings.
- TestGorilla: TestGorilla offers a pre-employment skills testing platform spanning technical, cognitive, and soft-skill assessments for hiring. It competes with Karat's pre-hire screening and Karat Qualify in the skills assessment category.
- iMocha: iMocha offers a skills assessment and talent analytics platform with coding tests, cognitive assessments, and AI-powered interviewing used by enterprises. It directly competes with Karat in technical skills evaluation and pre-hire screening.
- CoderPad: CoderPad provides a collaborative technical interviewing platform with live coding environments used by engineering teams for live interviews. It directly overlaps with Karat Interview's live, structured technical assessment functionality.
- Triplebyte (Karat subsidiary): Triplebyte was a technical interview and skills-matching platform acquired by Karat in 2023. It remains a directly comparable technical assessment brand now operating inside Karat's portfolio.
- Mettl: Mettl provides online assessments, psychometric tests, and remote proctoring for enterprise hiring and learning. It competes directly with Karat in skills assessment, technical evaluation, and enterprise talent measurement.
Broad incumbents
- HireVue: HireVue provides video interviewing, AI-driven assessments, and hiring science tools used by large enterprises across many roles. It overlaps with Karat in talent assessment and enterprise hiring, but addresses a broader set of use cases beyond software engineering.
- Pymetrics: Pymetrics delivers AI-driven behavioral assessments and talent matching used in enterprise hiring. It overlaps with Karat's assessment and benchmarking capabilities but focuses more on cognitive/behavioral traits than technical skills.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Karat social profiles
Digital presenceKarat financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Karat leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Karat subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Karat funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Karat M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A2 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Karat
What does Karat do?
Karat provides expert-led, AI-enabled technical interview assessments and talent intelligence for enterprise engineering organizations. Its certified Interview Engineers conduct live, structured technical interviews on behalf of client companies, evaluating software engineers against consistent rubrics and producing benchmarking data derived from a dataset of more than 600,000 interviews across 70+ countries.
Is Karat a public or private company?
Karat is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Karat founded?
Karat was founded in 2014. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is Karat based?
Karat is headquartered in Seattle, United States, in the North America region.
How does Karat make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Technical Interview Services are the primary driver. The others are partner Talent Solutions and hiring Insights.
Who are Karat's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are HackerRank, CodeSignal, Codility, TestGorilla, iMocha, CoderPad, Triplebyte (Karat subsidiary) and Mettl. Broad incumbents are HireVue and Pymetrics.
Does Karat have an API?
No public API is recorded for Karat.
What industry is Karat in?
Karat's product category is Technical Assessment Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPACAMAA, Pre-Employment Screening & Aptitude Testing, with a secondary code of BPACAMAD, Skills & Job-Specific Competency Testing (Hard Skills). Its SIC code is 7361.