What Scismic does

Scismic is a private, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based technology company that operates a skills-first talent platform purpose-built for the STEM workforce. Founded by PhD scientists from Harvard, the company applies an explainable AI matching engine against an NIH-awarded skills taxonomy covering 8,000+ STEM competencies to connect life sciences, manufacturing, engineering, and deep tech employers with screened scientific and technical candidates. The platform reports 100+ enterprise clients, 80,000+ pre-screened STEM professionals in its talent community, and outcome metrics including 97% first-year retention, an 80% reduction in time-to-hire, and a 5x higher callback rate for candidates versus traditional job boards.

The product surface is organized into four stakeholder-facing offerings: Scismic Connect for employer hiring and recruitment agencies; Scismic Job Seeker, a free skills-based job matching service for STEM professionals; SMARTBoard EDU, a skills intelligence platform for educators featuring Skills Lockers and curriculum-alignment analytics; and SMARTBoard ECO, a white-label digital ecosystem solution for regional workforce and economic development organizations. Revenue is generated exclusively from the employer and ecosystem side through tiered subscriptions (Smart Post at $1,500 per role, Recruit Lite at $2,500 per engagement, Unlimited Bundle at $10,000 per year) and an outcome-based placement fee (Smart Hire at $20,000 flat fee per successful hire), with the job seeker platform operating as a freemium acquisition funnel.

Scismic distributes through enterprise field sales targeting STEM employers, supplemented by self-serve mid-market access, and operates offices in Cambridge (HQ), Boston, London, and Singapore. The go-to-market combines direct enterprise sales with community-led ecosystem development across employer, educator, and workforce constituencies. No external funding rounds, institutional investors, or revenue figures are disclosed in available sources; the company appears to be operating with a small (1-10 employee) founder-led team, and ownership is held by the four co-founders (Dr. Danika Khong, CEO; Elizabeth Wu, CPO; Peter Craig-Cooper, CCO; Dr. Christine Kressirer, COO).

Name

Scismic

Legal name

Scismic Inc.

Website

https://scismic.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Scismic is a skills-first talent platform that uses an NIH-awarded STEM skills taxonomy and explainable AI to match life sciences, manufacturing, engineering, and deep tech employers with pre-screened scientific candidates, serving 100+ enterprise clients globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

STEM Talent Matching and Recruitment Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Skills & Job-Specific Competency Testing (Hard Skills) (BPACAMAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Professional & Career Skills Tutoring Platforms (Coding, Data, Business) (EDANAGAI), Corporate Training Course Marketplaces (B2B Content Libraries) (EDAFAIAH), IT, Software & Cybersecurity Training (EDAGANAF)

Keywords

• STEM talent matching
• Skills-based recruitment
• AI hiring platform
• Biotech recruitment software
• Workforce skills intelligence

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Employer Subscription - Smart Post: Agency-level recruitment service with 60-day posting visibility, 80,000 direct messages to candidates, and 300,000+ network blast. Subscription-based pricing at $1,500 per role.
2. Employer Subscription - Unlimited Bundle: Annual subscription offering unlimited job postings with full platform access for $10,000/year.
3. Recruit Lite: Recruitment service with expanded reach, guaranteed 3 interview-quality candidates, and 12-month retention guarantee at $2,500 per engagement.
4. Smart Hire: Performance-based hiring with guaranteed hire outcome, flat fee of $20,000 per successful hire from entry to SVP level positions.
5. Job Seeker Platform: Free skills-based job matching platform for STEM professionals, monetized through employer subscriptions rather than job seeker fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Scismic sells a skills-first STEM talent platform that uses an NIH-awarded 8,000-skill taxonomy and explainable AI to match candidates to specialized life sciences, manufacturing, engineering, and deep tech roles. Its core commercial offering is Scismic Connect, an employer subscription product that posts jobs, screens candidates on objective skills, and guarantees interview-ready candidates with a 12-month retention replacement, priced via per-role, annual, and flat-fee outcome tiers.

Product overview

Scismic is a skills-first STEM talent platform structured as a unified ecosystem with multiple named products serving distinct stakeholder segments. The core platform comprises Scismic Connect (employer-facing hiring and recruitment), Scismic Job Seeker (worker-facing job matching), SMARTBoard ECO© (ecosystem/community builder tools for regional economic development), and SMARTBoard EDU© (education institution tools). The Scismic Connect subscription tiers (Smart Post, Recruit Lite, Smart Hire, Unlimited Bundle) are the commercial products for employers. Skills Locker© is a sub-feature within SMARTBoard EDU for individual skill profiling. All products are powered by the company's NIH-awarded skills taxonomy and matching technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SMARTBoard EDU: Skills Intelligence platform for educators enabling curriculum alignment with labor market demand, student skills tracking, and employer connections.
• SMARTBoard ECO
• Scismic Connect
• Skills Locker

Products and services

• Scismic Connect Skills-first hiring platform for employers and recruitment agencies that matches candidates to specialized STEM roles using NIH-awarded skills data, providing guaranteed interview-ready candidates and a 12-month retention replacement guarantee.
• SMARTBoard ECO White-label digital ecosystem platform for regional workforce and economic development organizations, professional associations, and trade organizations to build, track, and monetize skills-first communities, including skills supply/demand mapping and workforce development impact tracking.
• SMARTBoard EDU Skills intelligence platform for educators and training institutions providing an Educator Dashboard, curriculum-vs-labor-market analytics, and Skills Locker student profiles to align programs with employer demand and improve graduate employment outcomes.
• Scismic Job Seeker
• Skills Locker Individual skill profile feature (and registered Scismic product) for students and trainees that tracks competencies, certifications, and workforce readiness in real time; available within SMARTBoard EDU.

Quantifiable outcome

• 97% first-year employee retention rate for employers using skills-first evaluation approach
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers22 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• MailgunminorOthersEmail delivery service used for automated emails. Has access to user name and email data for delivery purposes.
• ImgixminorOthersImage CDN service to make content available everywhere and accelerate image loading. Has access to profile images.
• LevercoreTechnology or IntegrationJob seeker progress tracking and outreach integration. Lever provides candidate tracking capabilities within Scismic platform. Has access to name, email, resume, user profiles, and applications.
• HubspotcoreTechnology or IntegrationCRM integration for recording interest from prospective customers and managing customer relationships. Has access to name and email.
• SovrencoreTechnology or IntegrationResume parsing service to increase ease of profile completion for job seekers. Has access to resume data including user information.
• Amazon Web ServicesminorOthersCloud hosting provider for server management. Data stored on AWS servers located within the United States.
• MailchimpminorOthersEmail marketing platform for newsletters and campaigns. Has access to user name and email for marketing communications.
• CloudflareminorOthersDomain management service for Scismic's website. Used for DNS management and security.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Greenhouse: Greenhouse is a leading ATS and recruiting platform with strong adoption among tech and STEM-employing companies. Comparable to Scismic at the recruiting workflow layer but as a general-purpose tool without STEM specialization.
• Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI is a broad talent intelligence platform serving enterprise customers across industries with skills matching, career planning, and workforce planning. Comparable to Scismic at the technology layer but operates at significantly larger scale and broader verticals.
• Phenom: Phenom provides a talent experience platform for enterprise hiring, employee development, and recruitment marketing. Comparable to Scismic's broader HR-tech layer with overlap in skills intelligence, although Phenom serves all industries rather than specializing in STEM.
• iCIMS: iCIMS is a large incumbent talent acquisition platform offering ATS, CRM, and candidate matching to enterprise customers. Comparable in serving STEM-employing enterprises but as part of a much broader portfolio without Scismic's biotech specialization or NIH-validated taxonomy.
• LinkedIn Talent Solutions: LinkedIn Talent Solutions is the dominant incumbent in professional recruiting with LinkedIn Recruiter and skills-based candidate search. Indirectly comparable to Scismic as the primary alternative for STEM employer hiring, though it is a general-purpose platform rather than a STEM specialist.

Direct peers

• HireEZ: HireEZ (formerly Hiretual) is an AI-powered talent sourcing and engagement platform targeting recruiters across tech and STEM roles. Directly comparable to Scismic Connect in applying AI to candidate sourcing and skills-based matching for specialized talent pools.
• SeekOut: SeekOut is an AI-driven talent intelligence platform with deep strength in technical, engineering, and STEM talent sourcing. Overlaps directly with Scismic on skills-first matching, technical candidate profiles, and explainable AI for hiring decisions.

Emerging players

• Pymetrics: Pymetrics (now part of Harver) uses neuroscience-based assessments and AI for candidate evaluation and skills matching. Comparable to Scismic's skills-first evaluation approach and explainable AI, with overlap in reducing bias in screening but broader across use cases.
• Workable: Workable is an ATS and recruiting platform serving SMB and mid-market employers with AI-assisted candidate matching. Comparable to Scismic at the subscription-based employer platform layer, particularly for mid-market STEM employers in Scismic's inside-sales channel.
• BioSpace: BioSpace is a leading life sciences job board and talent community serving biotech and pharma employers. Directly comparable to Scismic in the biotech/life sciences recruiting vertical but without the underlying NIH-awarded skills taxonomy or AI matching engine.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/scismic-llc
• Xx.com/scismic
• Facebookfacebook.com/scismic

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Scismic