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Egyptian HR tech start-up SAmAS Gamify, which specialises in psychometric assessment, recently raised $125,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Houston-based Softeq Venture Studio.
Founded in 2021, the firm offers companies a fully automated gamified psychometric assessment for new hires and employees. The product is AI-powered and backed with blockchain technology.
While the funds will partly be used to hire a marketing and sales team, the company hopes to raise in two years a total of $1 million, which will help drive their expansion into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The start-up founders argue that their model brings down the cost of psychometric assessments from 2,400 Egyptian pounds ($153) to 80 pounds ($5) per candidate, while maintaining a 70 percent profit.
“In normal scenarios, a company would hire an assessor and bring them in to proctor a test for multiple candidates on a particular day. Then, the assessor would take two to three days to evaluate the outcomes and write reports. This process takes a lot of time and requires a lot of manpower,” SAmAS Gamify CEO Moustafa El-Hadidi told Zawya.
By automating the process, SAmAS Gamify could hold assessments remotely and have reports released instantly, said El-Hadidi who had worked as a certified assessor for 14 years.
“Because of the high cost, psychometric assessment has been only used in Egypt by big companies and multinationals,” said El-Hadidi, adding that the penetration rate of such assessment is as low as three percent in Egypt.
SAmAS Gamify would make this type of testing affordable to a wider base of companies likes SMEs and start-ups, he said.
Hence, El-Hadidi sees a huge gap in the market that his company can fill. “It has become very challenging to hire and retain people,” said El-Hadidi.
“The rate of bad hiring in Egypt is 95 percent. Globally, bad hiring costs between $2,400 and $15,000 per employee over their three-month probation period.”
Softech Venture Studio, an American accelerator program, invested and partnered with SAmAS Gamify team in the venture.
In June, SAmAS Gamify expects to launch six game-based tests that assess organisational culture, leadership style, subordinate style, management skills and decision-making abilities. So far, 28 companies have signed up for the service.
(Reporting by Noha El Hennawy; editing by Brinda Darasha)
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