Sema-who? Semaloop

Late last year, we stuck a bunch of iPhones in Charlie's shed, connected them to a computer, and began building. Now, a few months later, we've secured over $3m in funding from investors and operators behind companies like Lovable, ElevenLabs, Hugging Face, Linear and Dropbox — and we're already relied on daily by cutting-edge companies like Granola and Gopuff.

Sema-who?

We saw first-hand how building apps was being slowed by checks and balances. Whether at early-stage startups or tech-giants like Apple (where Rory previously worked), flaky tests blocked releases and QA slowed cycle time. Automating UI testing has been brittle and slow ever since the first smartphone came out in 2007.

We're on a mission to change that by building agents that test apps like humans do: through sight, sound and touch. By solving for the human interfaces, developers don't have to maintain special APIs, accessibility IDs or integrate new libraries (if you're a mobile developer, we hope we haven't triggered you!).

Instead, teams like Granola just describe how their app should work in plain English. When they ship new builds, Semaloop does the heavy lifting: verifying that the app works, and if not, figuring out what's broken. That means an end to manual testing, and hours of time back per day for developers.

Crafting a truly magical experience for developers means building some category-defining technology. That's why we're assembling an all-star team here in London, with the ambition to truly change how software is made. If you're excited by the idea of teaching computers to understand, reason and interact with digital interfaces, you belong on this mission with us.

Why join Semaloop?

We know that joining any early stage company is a big decision. There's more uncertainty, more ambiguity, and a lot more to figure out along the way.

We think that's part of what makes it exciting, but it should also be a conscious choice.

So rather than trying to oversell it, this is a straightforward look at how we think about things, how we work, and what it actually feels like to be here.

Our approach to compensation

We're currently offering what we think is highly competitive compensation. Specifically, that's somewhere around the 80th percentile for London on cash, and 95th percentile on equity.

Joining an early-stage company always comes with some level of risk, but we don't want our early team to have to compromise on everything, so that's why we pay as we do. The idea being, that we all do well as a team, we want us all to have a share in that success.

What we're like (and how to find out)

We could try and pitch ourselves as uniquely different to other startups… but the reality is we'll probably sound quite similar.

Low ego, high trust, lots of autonomy, no rigid hierarchy, bias to action, supportive, honest, flexible… you've heard it all before.

We genuinely do think we're true to those things, but we'd love for you to come and see it for yourself.

That could mean swinging by our Old Street office for a coffee, spending a day working from one of our free desks, or as part of the interview process as a paid half or full 'Semaloop Day' depending on your preference.

Ultimately, we want you to get a proper feel for who we are, how we work, and what a normal day actually looks like. You can read for yourself what Sam's first week looked like.

How we work

When it comes to work-life balance, we're a team that works hard and wants to achieve something meaningful, but we value balance. Part of that is how we handle it when things start to feel off. We try to be good at talking about it, by calling it out early and adjusting when possible.

Most days are pretty normal. There are times we'll push harder when something exciting is happening. Then there will be the occasional crunch period, with all hands on deck. But it's not constant, and we don't want it to be.

We value time in person and want to keep that for now, we have a lovely office in Old Street.

That said, we're flexible. We understand people have lives, errands to run, things to do at home or maybe a day full of calls (we don't expect you to come in to just live in a phone booth).

Who tends to thrive here

People we think will do well here are individuals that are lifelong learners, back themselves to figure things out, and have a core specialism but are happy operating as a bit of a generalist.

It also helps if you're not afraid to dive into unfamiliar territory head first, get your hands dirty, and learn as you go. A lot of what we do involves figuring things out in real time rather than following a set playbook.

This kind of environment is especially exciting for people who have founded, or want to start a company one day, so are looking for broader exposure beyond a typical role. In addition, people who want to be involved in wider business decisions, that can contribute to shaping direction, and explore new domains, ideas, and problems.

Ultimately, we're trying to create a space where people can learn quickly, take on real responsibility, and do so in a supportive, low-ego environment where you're trusted to get on with things.

Our values

Brave simplicity: We take on the hard problems other teams avoid, even when it's uncomfortable or looks risky. But we keep everything around that bet simple, low-risk, and disciplined so we can actually deliver.

Sustainable intensity: We work with high energy and ambition, but we don't treat burnout as a badge of honour. We prioritise hard, keep momentum, and build in a way that's exciting and sustainable over the long term.

Decide fast: We move quickly because speed is a real advantage in how we build and learn. We align fast, someone takes ownership, and we iterate rather than getting stuck in endless deliberation.

Reality wins: We build trust through honesty, and not through hype. We say what's true (especially when it's hard) and we communicate early so nobody ends up surprised.