As they scaled operations at two prominent unicorns in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Akeed Azmi and David Reche identified a significant $2 billion market gap. Their experience at Careem and Kitopi unveiled a common struggle among local businesses: the complexities of payroll management and the burdens of compliance caused by human errors.
In January, they established Cercli to provide a solution through innovative software that empowers businesses in the MENA region to efficiently manage, hire, and compensate their global workforce. Cercli’s platform has garnered considerable attention from investors, successfully securing $4 million in seed funding, spearheaded by Afore Capital, which represents its inaugural investment in the region.
Afore Capital supports Cercli, aiming to address a critical challenge—managing a diverse global workforce while ensuring compliance with regional regulations. Managing Partner Anamitra Banerji remarked that the founders are focused on resolving one of the area’s substantial issues.
CEO Azmi, who previously oversaw operations at Kitopi and Careem, firsthand experienced the payroll hurdles while facilitating international growth at the cloud kitchen company. “During our market expansions, I encountered the necessity to find an employee of record to handle payroll in new regions,” Azmi shared in a TechCrunch interview. “That’s when I noticed the pain points we’re currently addressing: the complexities of payroll and related processes, where many businesses lack efficient systems to manage payroll across the workforce.”
He recognized that if well-known tech companies faced payroll challenges, smaller enterprises were likely grappling with similar, if not worse, difficulties. To confirm this hypothesis, he conducted interviews with over 30 companies, ranging from global titans like Saudi Aramco to small neighborhood businesses in Dubai.
Azmi’s research revealed that smaller firms frequently depend on spreadsheets, exposing them to data privacy breaches, fraud, and inaccuracies. In contrast, larger enterprises allocate substantial funds towards ERP solutions like Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, or Oracle for in-house payroll management. This insight, coupled with Reche’s experience as the CTO of the Africa-focused sports-tech platform KingMakers, prompted the creation of Cercli—a unified payroll solution designed to streamline the region’s fragmented payroll systems.
Designed to minimize human errors and guarantee compliance, Cercli effectively replaces outdated HRIS platforms and remote payroll services for various clients who demand superior efficiency.
Initially, Cercli aimed to develop a tailored payroll system for local employee management. However, as demand grew, clients expressed the need for remote payroll solutions. Although platforms like Deel or RemotePass could manage remote contractor payroll, they often fell short in meeting local payroll requirements.
“Clients wanted to transition everything to our system because the existing solutions couldn’t fulfill their local payroll needs. This feedback drove us to create multiple systems addressing both local and global requirements,” Azmi explained. “Some clients were also utilizing independent HRIS solutions like BambooHR as their primary systems. We consolidated these various systems but tailored them specifically for MENA businesses.”
Azmi elaborates that adhering to localized labor laws and efficiently processing salaries for employees lacking bank accounts exemplifies how targeted solutions can provide real value. He articulates, “Companies share the frequent challenge of not having a unified resource for their most valuable asset—their workforce, a substantial component of their P&L.”
Cercli channels its resources towards mid-sized enterprises, recognizing their pressing need for integrated and compliant solutions across HR, finance, legal, accounting, and IT operations. By aligning with the specific regulations and laws in the MENA region, Cercli enables firms with both local and global operations to maintain services like payroll, compliance, employee-of-record functions, expense reimbursements, onboarding, and leave management.
Beyond mere compliance, Cercli integrates with several workplace tools to facilitate these essential processes, constructing a solution that spans multiple product categories and markets. Azmi attributes much of the company’s capability to his experienced team, with 80% specializing in product and engineering and boasting backgrounds at companies such as Microsoft, ADP, and Accenture.
“Where we see alignment with Rippling is in our approach to broad integration across the HR and payroll landscape within the region,” Azmi stated, adding that the startup functions as a payroll subprocessor for major global payroll platforms, including Rippling, Workday, and Deel.
Since its launch earlier this year, Cercli reports a remarkable growth rate of 25% per month, managing payroll for enterprises with two to 500 employees while distributing over $23 million in salaries across 31 countries.
As demand for payroll and HR services surges in emerging markets, recent acquisitions underscore this trend: New York’s Payoneer acquired Singapore’s global payroll startup Skuad for $61 million, while Deel purchased South Africa’s PaySpace for over $100 million in March.
There’s a growing realization that companies in the MENA region must codify regulations—an area where Cercli aims to set pioneering standards in the field. Although potential competitors like RemotePass, which recently tailored its services for the MENA sector, along with Workpay, another Y Combinator-aligned payroll firm focused on Africa, might emerge, Cercli intends to leverage its early-mover advantage in the region.
In its seed round, Y Combinator, along with COTU Ventures and Rebel Fund, contributed to Cercli’s funding. Several executives from Ramp, Rappi, Kitopi, Careem, and Rippling are also involved in this funding round. The startup plans to utilize this investment to expand its team, enhance products aimed at SMEs and larger businesses, and solidify its footprint in target markets.