Cercli, a payroll startup launched in January 2024, has successfully raised $4 million in seed funding to build what it envisions as the “Rippling for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).” The company draws inspiration from Rippling, a leading US-based HR and payroll platform designed to manage both local and international workforces with ease.
San Francisco-based Afore Capital led the funding round, marking its first regional investment. This capital injection will enable Cercli to scale its operations, develop new products tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger corporations, and strengthen its presence across the MENA region.
The startup’s goal is clear: to simplify payroll management for businesses in a region where such processes are often fraught with complexity. This mission stems from the firsthand experiences of its founders, Akeed Azmi and David Reche, who previously worked at two of the region’s largest unicorns, Careem and Kitopi.
In less than a year, Cercli has achieved impressive growth, reporting a 25% month-on-month increase and processing over $23 million in employee salaries across 31 countries.
The idea for Cercli was born when Azmi and Reche realised the difficulties local businesses, including their own, faced with cumbersome payroll systems and the high compliance costs associated with human error.
Azmi, who once managed global payroll operations at Kitopi, identified a significant gap in the market.
“I was doing what Deel [HR and payroll company] was doing at Kitopi,” Azmi told TechCrunch, highlighting the challenges of managing payroll across multiple countries without a reliable system.
Recognising that if prominent tech companies in the region struggled with payroll, smaller startups likely faced even greater challenges, the Cercli team embarked on extensive research. They interviewed over 30 companies, from corporate giants like Saudi Aramco to small businesses around Dubai, and found a common issue: smaller companies relied on error-prone spreadsheets, while larger enterprises spent millions on complex ERP solutions like Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, and SAP to manage payroll in-house.
This realisation set Azmi and Reche on a path to create Cercli, a unified payroll management system tailored to the unique needs of the MENA region.
Cercli’s software integrates various functions, from payroll processing to compliance management, simplifying the task of managing both local and global workforces. Azmi noted that the platform, designed to minimise human error and ensure full compliance, has replaced individual HRIS systems and other remote payroll solutions like Deel and RemotePass for many businesses due to its superior efficiency.
Looking ahead, Cercli will focus on mid-market enterprises, where the demand for integrated and compliant solutions is particularly strong.
