yuzu.hr in the SAATKORN HR Startup Series
yuzu.hr in the SAATKORN HR Startup Series
In the SAATKORN HR Startup Series, I regularly present exciting young companies that are bringing a breath of fresh air to the HR world. Today, the focus is no longer just on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also on HR startups from France, the UK, and the US. Today’s featured company: yuzu.hr
I had the opportunity to speak with Léo Fichet, CEO & Co-Founder of Yuzu.HR – a French HR tech startup that turns soft skills assessment into an engaging, science-based, and gamified experience. – Let’s get started:
SAATKORN: Please introduce yourself to the SAATKORN readers!
Hi! I’m Léo Fichet, CEO and founder of Yuzu.hr, a French HR-Tech startup that turns soft-skills assessment into an engaging, science-based, and gamified experience. Together with my team, we combine behavioral science and video-game technology to make candidate evaluation both more accurate and more enjoyable.
SAATKORN: What’s the founding story behind your HR startup?
The idea for Yuzu came from a simple frustration: traditional personality questionnaires and cognitive tests were outdated and boring — yet still decisive in HR processes. As a candidate and later a recruiter, I realized how disconnected these tools were from real human behavior. That’s when I decided to reinvent the experience and create an alternative that truly reflects how people think, react, and collaborate — through immersive, gamified scenarios. That’s how Yuzu was born: the first platform assessing soft skills through realistic 3D simulations.
SAATKORN: What’s your mission – which problem are you aiming to solve?
Our mission is to reconcile talents and companies with evaluation tools.
We want companies to evaluate candidates and employees proudly — not see this stage as a constraint, but as a powerful lever for employer branding and engagement.
With Yuzu, organizations can identify key human skills while offering their talents an experience that is both meaningful and enjoyable.
SAATKORN: What is your HR startup’s business model?
Yuzu is a B2B SaaS platform. Companies subscribe to use our library of immersive assessment experiences or build customized ones aligned with their competency frameworks. We operate with annual licenses based on usage volume and service level, adapted to both enterprise and consulting clients.
SAATKORN: How would you describe your ideal customer profile?
Our ideal customers are large organizations facing significant HR challenges every year, and who value human and behavioral skills as much as technical ones. We help them save time across recruitment, internal mobility, and learning & development — particularly in mapping and developing employee competencies.
SAATKORN: In which countries do you offer your products or services?
Yuzu is available across Western Europe, in English and French, as well as in South Africa, and, more recently, in North America.
SAATKORN: What is your vision – where do you want to be three years from now?
In three years, our goal is to be the go-to solution for gamified assessment — first in gaming-based evaluation, and ultimately across the entire assessment market.
We aim to be recognized not just as a test provider, but as a fully digital assessment center, redefining how organizations understand and develop human potential.
SAATKORN: If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- That every candidate experiences assessment as a positive, empowering moment.
- That companies proudly embrace innovative tools that reflect their culture.
- That Yuzu continues to inspire the HR world by blending science, creativity, and technology.
SAATKORN: How and where can potential customers contact you?
You can reach us via our website, or connect directly with me on LinkedIn – Léo Fichet. We’re always happy to organize a live demo and show how Yuzu transforms the assessment experience.
SAATKORN: Léo, thank you so much for the interview. I wish you all the best for and with yuzu.hr!
yuzu.hr FACTS & FIGURES
- Founding year: 2022
- Number of employees: 9
- Headquarters located in: Metz & Paris, France
- Funding round: Seed
- Website URL: https://www.yuzu.hr
Are YOU also a HR startup FOUNDER?
Would you like your company to be featured free of charge in the SAATKORN HR Startup Series? Then answer THESE QUESTIONS, add some good images and—if available—a video link, and send everything to hrstartups@saatkorn.com. Important: please do not change the formatting of the questions and send everything back as a .doc file. THANK YOU. Your feature will then appear here on the blog, in my newsletter, and you’ll get a free social media push on top of that. DEAL?