Maki (Mochi)

Scores read words, candidates consent, and an outside firm audits yearly

Maki shares the legal data duty, and its contract renews itself

Your contract will be with MAKIPEOPLE SAS, a French company registered in Paris. Three co-founders run it, Maxime Legardez, Paul-Louis Caylar and Benjamin Chino. Maki says it raised $28.6 million in a Series A round led by Blossom Capital. It announced that in January 2025. That was on top of an earlier €11 million. No acquisition, no lawsuit and no court case names the company.

It fits high-volume, multilingual hiring across Europe

Maki bills per candidate interaction, and names only large customers

Maki asks buyers to request a quote. You pay for each candidate interaction, not for a seat. Each of its agents, Shiro, Mochi, Ken and Kumi, is switched on and billed separately. Mochi itself is sold as one line, called "Mochi Web & Phone." Maki's contract also describes smaller, packaged offers under its negotiated Enterprise tier. Its marketing names only large customers.

Maki states no minimum company size, headcount or hiring volume. It names its own market as "80+ global enterprises, incl. Fortune 500." Every company named on its site has 1,000 employees or more. The smallest named for Mochi itself is The Restaurant Group Company.

Maki's general promise is to keep a candidate's past results for six months. That way, they are not asked to repeat themselves. But its recruiter guide calls that promise "planned but currently not available" for a Mochi phone screening. A candidate can write to Maki and ask it to delete what it holds. Maki can only delete data still inside its own system. A copy in your tracking system is yours to delete, not Maki's. Maki says it does not use candidate interviews to train its models. It otherwise keeps personal data only as long as its purpose needs. It keeps nothing longer than legal, accounting and tax rules require.

Eight questions worth asking before you sign

1. Which filters can end an application alone, and which are on when Mochi arrives? Who on our side can switch them on? Good answer: None on by default, one named admin, and a record of every exclusion.
2. Which languages can Mochi hold a live interview in today, not just on request? Good answer: A written list that covers every language we hire in.
3. Does the link into iCIMS carry Mochi’s own results, or only results from Maki’s other agents? Good answer: Mochi’s own results, on the candidate’s record.
4. The page you link to for Mochi’s bias audit holds nothing to read. Will you send us the findings? Good answer: Yes, the full Holistic AI report, before we sign.
5. What happens to Mochi recordings and transcripts after six months? Your guide calls that retention period "planned but currently not available". Good answer: A fixed period in writing, and deletion after it.
6. Are both the phone and the browser version of Mochi included in what we sign? Good answer: Yes, both, in one agreement.
7. When will you publish your EU AI Act conformity assessment? Can we see it before we sign? Good answer: A publish date, and the result shared before we sign.
8. You describe smaller, packaged offers under your Enterprise tier. What sits under the tier you are quoting us? Good answer: A written list of what the tier includes, with its price.

Alternatives to Maki Mochi, including buying nothing

The nearest alternatives to Mochi are HeyMilo, Tengai, Spotted Zebra, Apriora and Metaview Screening. Each holds a first interview with the candidate. They differ in how much of the outcome a setting can decide alone. They also differ in the company behind the product.

Apriora covers the most steps. It screens a résumé, holds the interview, checks for fraud, watches for help and books the next round. Several of these steps can act on a candidate without anyone reviewing that case. Metaview Screening covers the fewest. Its score comes from a transcript alone. Its only automatic step rejects a candidate who misses the deadline. That setting is off by default. Mochi sits between the two. Most of what Mochi produces waits for a recruiter. But its named filters can end an application on their own.

Like Mochi, HeyMilo lets your team set rules that move a candidate on or out, once you switch them on. Tengai and Spotted Zebra both start from an assessment, not from a call inside your tracking system. They are closer to Maki's own Shiro than to Mochi.

Buying nothing is a sixth option. It makes sense if your recruiters already keep pace with first calls. It also makes sense if you hire mostly in one language and one country. If you hire in New York City, the bias audit and notice duty fall on the employer, not the vendor. Maki's own yearly audit covers part of that.