Nexco.ai secures DSW Ventures backing to expand AI agent platform for executive search

Nexco.ai, an AI startup building agentic co-workers for executive search, has secured pre-seed funding from DSW Ventures. The investment will expand Nexco’s AI agent platform, deepening the candidate intelligence available to search consultants and freeing more of their time for client advisory work.

Executive search is built on relationships, judgement and the proprietary intelligence firms accumulate over years. Yet much of that intelligence never makes it into a usable format. Calls, interviews and reference conversations generate rich candidate insight every week, but it typically remainsin consultants’ heads or in unstructured notes that are never processed. The result is stale databases, duplicated effort and shortlists built on incomplete information.

Nexco’s lead product addresses that gap through a suite of proprietary conversational AI agents that turn high‑value candidate conversations into structured, CRM‑ready intelligence, capturing detailed compensation data, motivations, references and contract specifics. Unlike generic chatbots, Nexco’s agents are trained with deep domain expertise, enabling them to conduct the nuanced conversations executive candidates expect and write the resulting intelligence directly into the firm’s CRM.

Surrounding this core product is a broader stack of agents that support consultants throughout the search process, from internal report generation to gap analysis on live shortlists. By automating the data‑heavy stages of screening, remuneration capture and reference collection, Nexco can free up to 40 hours of consultant time per search. Firms reinvest that time into client advisory work, relationship‑building and the candidate assessment tasks that only experienced consultants can deliver.

Nexco’s technology integrates with existing CRMs, deepening a firm’s candidate intelligence without disrupting the consultant–client relationship that defines the industry. The funding from DSW Ventures will help accelerate this work.

Charlotte Gandell, CEO of Nexco.ai, commented: “Human plus machine outperforms either alone. That is the vision driving Nexco. Others in this space are trying to disintermediate the consultant. We are doing the opposite: building agents that empower them with deeper candidate intelligence at every stage of a search, so they can focus on the relationships and judgement that win mandates.”

James Reston, Investment Manager at DSW Ventures, said: “Nexco.ai has a compelling combination of a strong founding team, a well-defined market and a product that is already generating commercial interest. This makes Nexco.ai a truly exciting opportunity, and we’re thrilled to be backing the team at this early stage.”

Nexco was founded in September 2024 by a leadership team with first‑hand experience of the industry’s friction points. CEO Charlotte Gandell brings 20 years across top‑tier executive search firms and in‑house senior hiring at FTSE corporates, followed by product leadership at executive search platform Nurole. CTO Gareth Cokell is a veteran software engineer specialising in sector‑specific technology, including five years as founding engineer at Nurole. They are supported by Jeremy Rickman, a former Russell Reynolds partner whose networks and strategic input span both major global firms and the boutique market.