In a area lengthy outlined by fragmented enterprise techniques, outdated compliance instruments, and HR software program that hardly ever talks to finance, Cercli is constructing a unified different for MENA companies with AI at its core.
The Dubai-based startup, based by ex-Careem operators Akeed Azmi and David Reche, has introduced an oversubscribed $12 million Collection A spherical led by European VC Picus Capital.
Cercli immediately appears to be like barely totally different from the corporate that raised a $4 million seed spherical final yr. It’s rebuilding a Rippling-like stack for the MENA area, however making it AI-native from the bottom up.
Over the previous yr, that guess has paid off. The corporate says it has scaled income greater than 10x and now processes over $100 million in payroll yearly for a number of companies throughout 50 nations.
However in a crowded HR-tech market—the place dozens of startups comparable to Deel and Distant, alongside incumbents like SAP and Oracle, already promise every little thing from cross-border funds to payroll — why does the market want one other HR tech participant? CEO Azmi hopes its AI-first rebuild often is the edge that units it aside.
Azmi began Cercli to assist enterprises with primary individuals operations, a difficulty he and Reche observed at their earlier employers, Careem and Kitopi, two of MENA’s best-known unicorns.
With payroll unfold throughout a number of techniques and compliance various by area, the primary model of Cercli centered on a platform that consolidated human assets administration, payroll, and compliance for MENA-based corporations working globally.
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However Azmi says it envisioned a much bigger alternative if it baked in AI. So, over the previous three months, Azmi says the corporate has rewritten its whole payroll engine to be multi-country and agent-compatible, enabling it to scale extra effectively throughout international jurisdictions.
“The legacy techniques of the final 20 years—your SAPs, Oracles, Workdays—they have been constructed for on-prem and the cloud. Now we’re coming into an AI-native world,” Azmi stated in an interview with iinfoai. “We didn’t need to simply combine AI; we wished to rethink the entire stack for the way individuals and brokers work collectively.”
It’s additionally executed the identical to its recruitment module. Cercli now affords agent-driven options that may floor candidate lists, supply from inside datasets, and run background logic on hiring match.
It’s personal inside operations run on AI, as the corporate makes use of custom-built treasury and reconciliation brokers to handle its personal funds and accounting. That’s how the 14-person staff closed its Collection Some time sustaining a 21% month-to-month income development fee, in keeping with Azmi.
Past AI, the founder believes Cercli’s different power lies in consolidation. Though loads of multi-module HR rivals exist — together with Deel, Rippling, BambooHR — MENA corporations are sometimes stitching their again workplace collectively from level options. An organization may use totally different merchandise for expense administration, payroll or recruiting.
“Clients are asking for every little thing in a single place, and being AI-native permits us to construct that unified expertise way more rapidly,” Azmi defined.
Azmi stated Cercli’s AI-native structure lets it onboard prospects rapidly, as properly. Setup can happen in two to a few days, in comparison with a number of months typical with legacy techniques, he claims. This has helped the two-year-old HR-tech startup win purchasers from startups to multinationals, together with Imaginative and prescient Financial institution, the International Local weather Finance Centre, Huspy, Lean Applied sciences, and Ziina.
Cercli can also be the primary MENA funding for Picus Capital. This agency has backed different international HR corporations like Personio, Multiplier, Deel, Maki, and JetHR.
Different buyers who participated on this Collection A spherical embody Knollwood Funding Advisory in addition to present buyers Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures.
As a part of the funding, the corporate plans to construct new AI-native merchandise and work on gaining extra market share within the $5.8 billion HR software program alternative in MENA.
“We’ve seen this enterprise mannequin succeed globally inside our portfolio, and we’re excited to again Cercli as they proceed to develop market share by way of new prospects and product launches,” stated Robin Godenrath, founding accomplice at Picus Capital.
