Terminal
Terminal is a global hiring platform founded in 2017 that connects companies with vetted remote software engineers from Canada, Latin America, and Europe, classifying candidates by a proprietary AI Fluency Standard and offering EOR employment services across 180+ countries.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Terminal does
Terminal is a privately held global hiring platform founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco (with primary operations in Toronto), specializing in connecting companies with vetted remote software engineering talent. The company sources candidates from nine countries across Canada, Latin America, and Europe, screening them through a proprietary AI Fluency Standard that classifies engineers into three tiers (AI Assisted, AI Enabled, AI Native) and awards Shipped AI Product badges for candidates with deployed production AI experience. Only the top 7% of applicants pass the screening process, and the network comprises 250,000+ engineers with 2,000+ cumulative placements.
Terminal operates a platform-plus-services model with four primary revenue streams: direct hiring success fees (percentage of annual salary), fixed-term contract developer engagements (6/12 months), Employer of Record services (monthly platform fees plus onboarding for payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance in 180+ countries), and nominal contract-to-hire transition fees. Distribution combines enterprise field sales for large clients with a self-serve Talent Hub platform for mid-market browsing. Customer segments span startups and enterprises across SaaS, Fintech, Healthcare, eCommerce, Social Media, Gaming, and other verticals, with named logos including Grindr, Calendly, Nextdoor, GoPro, Optimizely, Chime, Turo, and CB.
The company is led by CEO Dylan Serota with COO Eran Ben-Ari and Board member Peter Jackson (appointed late 2024). Terminal has raised approximately $27 million in disclosed venture funding, with the most recent round being a $17M Series B led by 8VC in September 2019. Notable operational metrics include a 90% customer retention rate, 78 customer NPS, 73 employee NPS, and a 4.7/5 G2 rating. In April 2026 Terminal launched the AI Fluency Standard as a first-mover taxonomy in AI-era engineering hiring, and in late 2024 the company launched an AI Enhancements Suite for its recruitment platform.
Terminal firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Terminal
- Legal name
- Terminal
- Website
- https://terminal.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Terminal is a global hiring platform founded in 2017 that connects companies with vetted remote software engineers from Canada, Latin America, and Europe, classifying candidates by a proprietary AI Fluency Standard and offering EOR employment services across 180+ countries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Terminal industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Talent Acquisition Platform
- NAICS
- Employment Placement Agencies (561311), Temporary Help Services (561320), Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131)
- SIC
- Services-Employment Agencies (7361), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Human Capital Management (HCM) & Payroll Platforms (HDAEAEAJ)
Keywords
Where Terminal is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Terminal business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Direct Hiring Fees: Success fee per hire as percentage of annual salary for full-time placements. Terminal handles recruiting, vetting, and hiring support.
- Contract Developer Engagements: 6/12 month term engagements with fixed rates for contract developers. Includes 14-day risk-free guarantee.
- Employer of Record (EOR) Services: Monthly platform fees plus onboarding fees for employment management in 180+ countries. Covers payroll, benefits, HR support, and compliance.
- Contract-to-Hire Transition: Nominal fee to transition a contractor to full-time employee. Unlike competitors charging excessive fees, Terminal offers minimal transition costs.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | One-time | Full-time Hiring - Success fee model |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Contract Developers - Fixed term |
| Subscription | Monthly | EOR/Employment Services |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Terminal product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Terminal is a global hiring platform that connects companies with vetted AI-fluent software engineers for full-time, contract, and contract-to-hire engagements across Canada, Latin America, and Europe. The platform combines a proprietary AI Fluency Standard classification system, Talent Hub browsing with deep candidate profiles, and Employer of Record services to manage recruiting, hiring, payroll, benefits, HR support, and compliance in 180+ countries.
Product overview
Terminal is a global hiring platform for software developers offering a unified platform-plus-services architecture. The core platform (Terminal Platform) combined with Talent Hub provides AI-powered candidate matching and vetting, while the proprietary AI Fluency Standard classifies developers into AI Assisted, AI Enabled, and AI Native tiers. The services layer includes hiring options for full-time, contract, and contract-to-hire engagements, Employer of Record (EOR) services in 180+ countries, and specialized developer categories including AI & ML Developers, Nearshore/Offshore Developers, Freelance Developers, and Dedicated Development Teams. Additional offerings include RLHF Training for AI model development.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Terminal Platform AI-powered global hiring platform connecting companies with vetted software developers, combining deep candidate profiles, AI Fluency assessment, and EOR services in 180+ countries. Designed for startups and enterprises seeking to hire AI-fluent engineers for full-time, contract, or contract-to-hire engagements.
- AI Fluency Standard Proprietary classification standard that evaluates software engineers on their AI usage across three tiers: AI Assisted (uses AI for research, writes most code manually), AI Enabled (regularly uses coding assistants like Claude or Cursor), and AI Native (fully integrated agentic AI development orchestrating parallel agents). Validated through structured onboarding and live recruiter screening.
- Employer of Record (EOR) Global employment service in which Terminal acts as the legal employer, handling payroll, benefits, HR support, and compliance across 180+ countries while client companies manage day-to-day employee performance and work assignments.
- Dedicated Development Teams Pre-assembled engineering teams consisting of software developers, QA engineers, engineering leads, and other roles, built to client specifications for specific project requirements or ongoing business needs.
- RLHF Training Specialized Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) training service supporting AI model development and refinement, leveraging Terminal's network of trained annotators and engineers.
Quantifiable outcome
- Hire 40% faster than domestic recruiting
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Terminal
Customer profileNamed customers24 records
Segments10 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Terminal technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability5 records
Feature4 records
Terminal partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Peter JacksonminorVeteran entrepreneur appointed to Board of Directors to assist in company's growth. Brings extensive experience to help Terminal scale.
Scale indicators14 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Terminal competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Toptal: Toptal operates a vetted freelance software developer marketplace with a similar top-3% acceptance philosophy and serves enterprise clients needing elite remote engineers. Both companies compete directly for the same CTO and founder buyer seeking pre-vetted global technical talent.
- Andela: Andela is a global engineering talent marketplace sourcing developers from Africa, Latin America, and other emerging markets for enterprise clients. It directly competes with Terminal on nearshore/offshore hiring, dedicated team offerings, and AI engineering talent positioning.
- Turing: Turing is an AI-powered tech talent platform matching vetted remote software engineers to US companies. It competes directly with Terminal on AI-skilled developer sourcing, talent vetting, and US-to-global hiring with similar value propositions around quality and speed.
- Revelo: Revelo is a LatAm-focused developer hiring and EOR platform that matches US companies with pre-vetted Latin American engineers. It is a head-to-head competitor in Terminal's core nearshore hiring vertical with overlapping geographic coverage and EOR capabilities.
- Deel: Deel is a global EOR, payroll, and contractor management platform operating in 150+ countries. While broader than Terminal, Deel directly overlaps on the EOR service that Terminal bundles with its hiring offering, competing for the same HR/Talent Leader buyer.
- Remote: Remote is a global EOR and international payroll platform competing in the same multi-country employment management space as Terminal's EOR service. Both target companies hiring and managing remote employees globally with overlapping customer segments.
- Arc: Arc is a developer hiring marketplace connecting companies with vetted remote software engineers globally. It competes directly with Terminal on freelance and full-time developer placement, time-to-hire, and quality-of-talent positioning.
- Hired: Hired is a tech-focused job marketplace that uses AI to match engineers with companies. It overlaps with Terminal in the technology recruiting space, particularly for full-time engineering placements at startups and enterprises.
- Gun.io: Gun.io is a vetted freelance developer platform focused on US-based and remote engineers. It competes with Terminal on elite developer sourcing, contract engagements, and serving startups and enterprises needing pre-vetted technical talent.
Broad incumbents
- Upwork: Upwork is the largest public freelance marketplace and competes broadly with Terminal on contract developer sourcing. While Upwork is a broader platform with less vetting, it competes for the same enterprise and mid-market buyer looking for flexible engineering talent.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Terminal social profiles
Digital presenceTerminal financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Terminal leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Terminal funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Terminal M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Terminal
What does Terminal do?
Terminal is a global hiring platform that connects companies with vetted AI-fluent software engineers for full-time, contract, and contract-to-hire engagements across Canada, Latin America, and Europe. The platform combines a proprietary AI Fluency Standard classification system, Talent Hub browsing with deep candidate profiles, and Employer of Record services to manage recruiting, hiring, payroll, benefits, HR support, and compliance in 180+ countries.
Is Terminal a public or private company?
Terminal is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Terminal founded?
Terminal was founded in 2017. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Terminal based?
Terminal is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Terminal make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Direct Hiring Fees are the primary driver. The others are contract Developer Engagements, employer of Record (EOR) Services and contract-to-Hire Transition.
Who are Terminal's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Toptal, Andela, Turing, Revelo, Deel, Remote, Arc, Hired and Gun.io. Upwork is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Terminal have an API?
No public API is recorded for Terminal.
What industry is Terminal in?
Terminal's product category is Talent Acquisition Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAEAJ, Human Capital Management (HCM) & Payroll Platforms. Its NAICS code is 561311 and its SIC code is 7361.