In a region long defined by fragmented enterprise systems and outdated compliance tools, Cercli is emerging as a unifying force for MENA businesses. The Dubai-based startup is building an AI-native alternative to legacy HR and finance platforms, and investors are taking notice. The company, founded by former Careem operators Akeed Azmi and David Reche, has closed an oversubscribed $12 million Series A round led by Picus Capital, marking the European venture firm’s first investment in the MENA region.
Cercli’s mission is clear: to rebuild the HR stack for an AI-first world. What began as a simple platform to streamline payroll and compliance has evolved into a comprehensive system that connects HR, finance, and operations through intelligent automation. According to Azmi, the problem in MENA is not a lack of software but a lack of integration. Companies often juggle separate tools for payroll, expense management, recruitment, and compliance, resulting in inefficiency and data silos. Cercli aims to replace this patchwork with one unified platform built around artificial intelligence.
Over the past year, the company’s approach has paid off. Cercli says its revenue has grown more than tenfold while processing over $100 million in payroll annually across 50 countries. Its re-engineered payroll engine, rebuilt from scratch in the past three months, is now multi-country and agent-compatible, enabling the company to scale more efficiently across jurisdictions. “The legacy systems of the last 20 years, your SAPs, Oracles, Workdays, were built for on-prem and the cloud,” Azmi explained. “Now we’re entering an AI-native world. We didn’t want to just integrate AI; we wanted to rethink the entire stack for how people and agents work together.”
Cercli has applied the same AI-native philosophy to its recruitment module. The new version uses agent-driven features that can automatically surface candidate lists, source talent from internal datasets, and analyze hiring fit based on company data. Even its internal operations run on AI, with custom-built treasury and reconciliation agents managing finances and accounting. This internal automation is how Cercli, with just 14 employees, has maintained a 21% month-over-month revenue growth rate while closing its Series A round.
In a crowded HR-tech market filled with global heavyweights like Deel, Remote, and BambooHR, Azmi believes Cercli’s strength lies in its localization and consolidation. While many companies promise to solve global HR challenges, MENA enterprises often face unique regulatory complexities that generic tools don’t fully address. Cercli’s architecture is tailored to those nuances, offering a localized solution that still scales globally. “Customers are asking for everything in one place,” Azmi said. “Being AI-native allows us to build that unified experience much faster.”
The startup’s onboarding process is another key differentiator. Cercli claims that new clients can be fully onboarded in as little as two to three days, a stark contrast to the months required by legacy systems. This efficiency has helped the company win clients ranging from startups to established corporations, including Vision Bank, Global Climate Finance Centre, Huspy, Lean Technologies, and Ziina.
For lead investor Picus Capital, Cercli represents both a strategic regional foothold and a bet on the future of enterprise automation. The firm, known for backing HR leaders such as Personio, Multiplier, Deel, Maki, and JetHR, sees Cercli as the MENA equivalent ready to dominate an untapped market. “We’ve seen this business model succeed globally within our portfolio,” said Robin Godenrath, founding partner at Picus Capital. “We are excited to back Cercli as they continue to grow market share through new customers and product launches.”
Other participants in the round include Knollwood Investment Advisory, as well as existing investors Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures. The new capital will help Cercli expand its product suite, enhance its AI-native infrastructure, and capture a larger share of the $5.8 billion HR software opportunity in MENA.
Azmi and Reche’s journey from Careem and Kitopi to Cercli underscores a broader shift in MENA’s startup landscape. Founders are no longer content with building regional clones of Western software, they’re building for the future from the ground up. While companies like Rippling and Deel defined the new HR stack in the U.S. and Europe, Cercli is doing the same for MENA by prioritizing AI integration, compliance automation, and real-time intelligence.
As businesses across the region adopt AI to streamline operations, Cercli’s timing couldn’t be better. Its combination of rapid setup, local compliance coverage, and AI-driven insights positions it to become the backbone of enterprise HR in MENA. In many ways, it’s not just building software, it’s reimagining how organizations hire, pay, and operate in an AI-first economy.
With a rapidly growing client base, strong investor confidence, and a clear focus on scalability, Cercli is signaling the start of a new chapter for HR tech in the Middle East and North Africa. Its success could very well define how future MENA enterprises run their back offices, intelligently, seamlessly, and natively powered by AI.
