Manu Vanderveeren
| Manu Vanderveeren | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, software executive |
|---|---|
| Known for | Co-founder of Spott |
Manu Vanderveeren is a Belgian entrepreneur and co-founder of Spott, an AI-native applicant tracking system (ATS) and customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed for recruiting and staffing firms. Spott participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.[1]
Early life and education
Vanderveeren met his co-founders, Samuel Smeys and Lander Degrève, while attending university, where the three became friends through a student society called BRIKS. After graduating, all three pursued careers in management consulting.[2]
Career
Prior to founding Spott, Vanderveeren worked as a strategy consultant. During this period, he identified recurring software pain points at recruitment agencies, which later informed the direction of the company.[3]
The three co-founders had been meeting every six months to discuss potential business ideas before deciding to leave consulting and launch Spott in 2024. The company's platform was launched in November 2024.
Spott
Spott is an AI-native ATS and CRM built specifically for recruiting and staffing firms. The platform was developed to address limitations of legacy recruitment software, which the founders described as requiring extensive manual work, relying on fragmented add-on tools, and being poorly suited for AI integration. Spott consolidates applicant tracking, client relationship management, and AI-powered automation into a single system. Its AI capabilities include automated data entry, enhanced candidate searching, and content generation, with the stated goal of enabling recruiters to focus on relationship-building and close more placements.[4]
The platform competes with established recruitment software providers such as Bullhorn, Jobadder, Vincere, and Loxo, and the company's website lists several clients that have migrated from these systems.
In May 2025, Spott raised $3.2 million (approximately €2.8 million) in seed funding. The round attracted attention from American investors and was covered by multiple technology and business publications.
Spott is classified within the software as a service (SaaS), B2B, HR technology, enterprise software, and artificial intelligence sectors.
References
- ↑ "Spott – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ "Inside Spott's Mission to Give Recruiters Superpowers (Not Replace Them)". 'Talent Business Partners}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ "Staffing Industry Spotlight: Manu Vanderveeren, Co-founder of Spott". 'LinkedIn}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ "Spott – AI-native ATS/CRM for recruiting firms". 'Spott}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.