Riviera Partners, a leading executive search firm backed by Insight Partners, has acquired Lateral Labs, a recruiting company that focuses on hiring for artificial intelligence startups. The deal marks another step in the consolidation of the executive search industry as the war for AI talent intensifies across the technology sector.
Riviera Partners has a long history of placing technology leaders at some of the most prominent companies in the world, including Uber, Snowflake, Figma, and Discord. The firm was founded in 2002 and has completed thousands of leadership placements over more than two decades. It has been on an acquisition streak in recent years, previously acquiring Build Talent, Board and Technology, and Arete Partners to expand its capabilities across venture-backed and private equity-backed companies.
Lateral Labs was founded in 2024 by Rob Infantino, who previously worked as a recruiter at OpenAI and Amazon Web Services. The firm offers embedded, retained, and contingent search for machine learning and AI research roles, positioning itself as a specialist that understands the technical profiles AI companies need. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the strategic value is clear: Lateral Labs brings a client list that includes Cursor, ElevenLabs, Runway, Scale AI, and Luma Labs—some of the hottest AI startups in the market.
The AI talent market has become a battlefield where companies are willing to spend extraordinary sums to secure top researchers. Meta reportedly spent $1.5 billion on a single engineer from Thinking Machines Lab, and OpenAI acknowledged offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million. These figures reflect the desperation among tech giants and startups alike to hire the people who can build and scale the next generation of AI systems.
Riviera Partners’ own research underscores the severity of the talent shortage. Its AI Hiring Blueprint 2026 report, based on hundreds of executive searches, found that companies want AI leaders who can work across product, finance, and operations while communicating with boards and building teams that last. The supply of candidates with that combination remains thin. Kyle Langworthy, a Riviera executive, said in the announcement that “as few as two percent of companies are organizationally ready to execute with AI.” That figure is lower than other industry estimates, which put full AI readiness at roughly one-third of organizations, according to surveys from workforce firms tracking the AI hiring landscape. ManpowerGroup’s 2026 data found that 72 percent of employers globally are struggling to fill open roles, with AI and machine learning among the hardest-hit categories.
The acquisition also puts Riviera in closer competition with a new class of AI-native recruiting startups. Dex, a London-based AI talent agent that counts ElevenLabs among its clients, raised a $5 million seed round in April and uses conversational AI to build detailed candidate profiles rather than traditional search methods. These startups leverage artificial intelligence itself to find and engage talent, potentially disrupting the traditional relationship-driven executive search model.
Riviera is betting that the old model still works if it moves faster. The firm uses a proprietary platform with machine learning to score and predict candidate fit, but its core business remains relationship-driven executive search. Adding Lateral Labs gives it a direct line into the AI startup ecosystem where many of the most competitive hires are happening. The firm now has over 100 employees and a network that spans the technology sector.
Rob Infantino, founder of Lateral Labs, built the company to support AI companies with hiring “from its first technical hire through IPO.” His experience at OpenAI and AWS gave him insight into the specific needs of AI research and engineering teams. Lateral Labs’ approach is deeply embedded with clients, often placing recruiters inside the company to understand culture and technical requirements firsthand. This model has resonated with fast-growing AI startups that need speed and precision in hiring.
The global demand for AI talent is staggering. According to Second Talent’s 2026 analysis, there are roughly 1.6 million open AI positions globally against only 518,000 qualified candidates. Over 90 percent of global enterprises are projected to face critical skills shortages by the end of the year. This supply-demand gap is driving up compensation and forcing companies to rethink their hiring strategies. Many are turning to specialized recruiters who can navigate the niche world of machine learning engineers, AI researchers, and data scientists.
The executive search industry itself is undergoing transformation. Traditional firms like Riviera Partners are consolidating to offer comprehensive services, while new entrants use AI to automate parts of the recruiting process. The acquisition of Lateral Labs is a clear signal that even the largest players believe specialization is the key to winning in the AI talent market. By integrating a team that already has relationships with the most sought-after AI companies, Riviera strengthens its position against both established competitors and disruptive startups.
Riviera Partners’ history of acquisitions shows a pattern of vertical expansion. Buying Build Talent brought expertise in building technology teams, while Board and Technology expanded their board-level placements. Arete Partners added strength in private equity and venture capital portfolio companies. Now, Lateral Labs gives Riviera a dedicated AI recruiting capability, which is increasingly critical as AI becomes a top priority for boards and executives across industries.
The companies on Lateral Labs’ client list illustrate the concentration of AI talent demand. Cursor, the AI coding tool, was in talks to raise $2 billion at a valuation above $50 billion earlier this year. ElevenLabs raised $500 million at an $11 billion valuation in February. Runway, Scale AI, and Luma Labs are also among the most well-funded AI startups. These companies are fighting hardest for AI researchers, and Lateral Labs has been placing candidates inside them since its founding.
The deal also reflects how the AI talent war has escalated beyond individual hires into an infrastructure-level competition. When companies spend billions on a single engineer or offer $100 million signing bonuses, the message to recruiting firms is clear: they need better pipelines for finding the people who cash those checks. Riviera Partners’ acquisition of Lateral Labs is a direct response to that need.
Whether established search firms or AI-native recruiting tools will ultimately win the AI talent market is an open question. What is not in dispute is the scale of demand and the shortage of qualified candidates. For Riviera, the Lateral Labs acquisition is a bet that the firms placing AI leaders will themselves need to specialize, consolidate, and move at the same speed as the companies they serve. The talent war shows no signs of cooling, and this acquisition ensures Riviera remains at the forefront of the fight.