Spotted Zebra Named "Potential Challenger" in Prestigious Fosway 9 Grid™ for Talent Acquisition 2025

‍LONDON, UK – 6 June 2025 – UK-founded HR tech innovator Spotted Zebra has been recognised as a 'Potential Challenger' in the prestigious Fosway 9 Grid™ for Talent Acquisition 2025, marking a significant milestone for the company's unified Interview Intelligence and Assessment platform. This independent analyst recognition comes as Spotted Zebra builds remarkable momentum following its recent triple award win at the 2025 In-House Recruitment Supplier Awards, including Gold for "Use of AI."

The Fosway 9 Grid™, widely regarded as the definitive European guide to HR technology, evaluates vendors on both market performance and solution capability. Fosway's 'Potential Challenger' positioning recognises solutions with "capability across a wide functional range" that demonstrate innovation worthy of market attention. For Spotted Zebra, this acknowledgement validates the company's breakthrough approach - becoming the first platform to seamlessly combine skills science with interview intelligence, eliminating the fragmented approach that has plagued enterprise talent acquisition for decades.

“We have seen a number of new entrants to this year’s 9 Grid™ for Talent Acquisition, all of whom recognise that a crowded vendor market will reward solutions that prioritise innovation and candidate centricity,” said Sven Elbert, Head of Analyst Services at Fosway Group. “Spotted Zebra is one such company, standing out for its innovation in skills and interview intelligence. Its inclusion as a Potential Challenger reflects a strong innovation-led approach to solving very imminent pain points in enterprise hiring.”

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Disrupting the Status Quo with Unified Innovation

What sets Spotted Zebra apart in a crowded HR tech landscape is its fundamental reimagining of how recruitment technology should work. Rather than forcing talent teams to juggle multiple point solutions, the platform combines industry-leading skills science with AI-powered Interview Intelligence to create a seamless, data-informed way to make hiring decisions confidently at scale.

"This Fosway recognition validates our breakthrough in combining skills science with AI to enhance human decision-making," said Ian Monk, Co-Founder and CEO of Spotted Zebra. "We've created the first platform where skills data becomes the golden thread running through every hiring touchpoint - from role kick off, and assessment to interview, and final decision. Our AI doesn't replace human judgement; it amplifies it with objective skills intelligence that was previously accessible only through enormously time-consuming and resource-intensive processes.”

The platform's breakthrough lies in its ability to maintain consistent skills measurement across both quantitative assessments and qualitative interview conversations. This unified approach enables enterprises to combat two critical challenges: the global skills shortage affecting 77% of businesses and the overwhelming influx of AI-generated applications flooding recruitment pipelines.

Pioneering Tomorrow's Recruitment Capabilities Today

Beyond addressing current market challenges, Spotted Zebra is pioneering technology that industry analysts predict will be must-have capabilities for talent teams. The company's Interview Intelligence module exemplifies this forward-thinking approach, automatically transforming intake meetings between recruiters and hiring managers into comprehensive role skills profiles that become the foundation for AI-powered interview guides and targeted assessment recommendations.

This automated intake process eliminates one of recruitment's biggest bottlenecks - the time-consuming manual creation of role requirements. By seamlessly capturing job descriptions and conversation insights, the platform can generate comprehensive role-specific skills frameworks in minutes rather than hours, enabling hiring teams to operate faster and more seamlessly, while ensuring every assessment and interview is perfectly crafted to evaluate in-role success. 

Innovation Recognition Builds on Award-Winning Momentum

The Fosway recognition builds on Spotted Zebra's remarkable 2025 trajectory, which has seen the company achieve multiple significant milestones:

• Gold Award for "Use of AI" at the In-House Recruitment Supplier Awards, alongside Silver for Skills Assessment and Bronze for Early Careers
• ISO/IEC 42001 certification – the world's first international standard for AI Management Systems, demonstrating responsible AI governance
• Launch of Interview Intelligence module – enabling enterprise customers to save an estimated 3,000 hours monthly through AI-powered interview transcription, summarisation, and evaluation

Nick Shaw, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, explained: "What we've achieved goes far beyond interview transcription and summarisation – we've cracked the code on consistent, role-specific skills measurement at scale. For the first time, hiring teams can see the same rigorous skills intelligence whether they're reviewing assessment data or interview insights. The results speak for themselves: customers have doubled their top performer success rates whilst cutting time-to-hire by 25%."

Continued Expansion and Enterprise Adoption

With enterprise-grade security, compliance features designed for global operations, and integration capabilities with major ATS systems like Workday, Spotted Zebra is positioned for significant international expansion. The platform supports 18 languages and has been specifically architected to meet the complex requirements of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 organisations.

The Fosway recognition comes as the HR tech market increasingly recognises the limitations of fragmented point solutions. As Dhiraj Mukherjee, Co-Founder of Shazam and tech investor, noted: "Companies that continue with disconnected candidate evaluation approaches will increasingly find themselves at a disadvantage when competing for the right talent."

Looking Ahead

As skills shortages intensify globally and AI continues reshaping the recruitment landscape, Spotted Zebra's unified approach represents a fundamental shift toward more intelligent, integrated talent acquisition. The Fosway 'Potential Challenger' positioning signals the market's recognition that innovative, well-executed solutions can successfully challenge established players.

"This is just the beginning," concluded Monk. "We're not just building better HR tech - we're reimagining how technology can help organisations build high-performing, future-ready teams. The momentum we're seeing validates that the market is ready for this transformation."

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To see Spotted Zebra's award-winning Interview Intelligence and Assessment solution in action, get in touch.

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