Spotted Zebra (Spot)

A public bias audit and traceable scores work in your favor

The founders still own it, and four product details are unclear

Spotted Zebra Solutions Ltd is still owned by the two people who founded it. The UK's public company register lists Ian Monk and Nick Shaw as its only significant shareholders. Each holds more than a quarter of the company, but not more than half. No acquirer or parent company is on record. Spotted Zebra has raised £7.7m in total, all in one funding round announced in October 2023. No lawsuit, regulator complaint or layoff against the company has been reported.

It suits current Spotted Zebra customers hiring at volume

No price is published, and candidate data is kept up to seven years

Spotted Zebra has no pricing page. Get a price in writing. Get the charging unit too, such as per candidate, per role or per seat.

Spotted Zebra states no minimum company size for buying Spot. Every named company is a large enterprise. They are Lidl, Virgin Media O2, AWE, Merlin Entertainments and Paramount. Virgin Media O2 alone runs more than 300 UK stores.

The only contract on its site is its terms of business for Zoom users. That document was written for a different Spotted Zebra product.

Spotted Zebra's privacy policy says it typically keeps a candidate's test data for up to seven years after the assessment. It deletes the data within twenty business days if the candidate or the client asks. It keeps a client's own data for ninety days after the account closes. CVs follow the hiring company's own rules. They are deleted within twelve months at most. Candidates can also ask for their data to be erased, or moved to another company in some cases.

What should you ask Spotted Zebra before you sign?

1. Will our candidates take Spot as a phone call, a browser voice call, a video call, or typed chat? Will they see an on-screen avatar too? Good answer: One clear channel and format, named in writing.
2. How many real candidates has Spot interviewed since it launched, and across how many customers? Can we speak to one directly? Good answer: A number, a customer list, and a live reference call.
3. Do we get to see and approve the exact questions Spot will ask, before a single candidate does? Good answer: Yes, with a review step built into onboarding.
4. What does "cheat detection and integrity monitoring" check, and what happens once it flags a candidate? Good answer: A named list of checks, and a next step decided by a person on our team.
5. Does Spot read anything beyond the words a candidate says, such as their tone of voice or expression? Good answer: No. It scores only what the candidate says.
6. Which document would we sign, and does it carry the same terms as your Zoom-users page? Good answer: A named contract, with its own terms shown before we sign.
7. If we leave, what data comes out, and within how many days? Good answer: Every record, within twenty business days.
8. Your bias audit tested invented candidates for one role. Will you run it again on our real hiring data, and share the results? Good answer: Yes, with a date for the re-run and a commitment to share results.

Alternatives to Spotted Zebra, including buying nothing

The closest alternatives to Spotted Zebra are Tengai, Maki's Mochi, HireVue and Eightfold. Buying nothing yet is a fifth option.

Tengai also starts from assessment science, not from a hiring system. If that is what drew you to Spotted Zebra, look at Tengai too.

Maki's Mochi is built differently. Its filters can reject a candidate without a person. Spot leaves every decision to a person on your team. If you want a tool that can act on its own, compare Mochi first.

HireVue puts a similar interviewer inside a larger, longer-established platform. Look at Eightfold if its size and its bias audit matter more to you than skills profiles.

If you run no other part of Spotted Zebra's platform, buy nothing yet. Spot is sold as one of three things on the same account. The company's own launch post asks a buyer to combine it with the other two. Buying the interviewer alone means starting with no Role Skills Profile and no Assessment data. In New York City, the bias-audit and candidate-notice duties fall on the employer, not the vendor. Our guide to the rest of this market goes into more depth.