The payroll management industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been experiencing significant challenges and inefficiencies. Many businesses in the region struggle with payroll management and high compliance costs due to human error. Recognizing this opportunity, Akeed Azmi and David Reche, former employees of Careem and Kitopi, launched Cercli in January. Cercli is a startup that aims to address these challenges by providing businesses in the MENA region with a platform to hire, manage, and pay their global workforce.
Cercli’s platform has garnered interest from investors, leading to $4 million in seed funding led by San Francisco-based Afore Capital. Afore Capital sees Cercli as the “Rippling for MENA” and is excited about the founders’ focus on solving one of the region’s largest challenges: managing a global workforce while meeting compliance requirements.
The idea for Cercli came to CEO Akeed Azmi while he was leading operations at Kitopi, a cloud kitchen startup. In his role, Azmi was responsible for managing employee payroll across multiple countries. He recognized the pain points and inefficiencies of the existing payroll systems and saw an opportunity to provide a unified platform for businesses in the region.
Through his interviews with over 30 companies, Azmi found that smaller businesses relied on spreadsheets for payroll management, which posed risks of data privacy breaches, fraud, and errors. Larger companies, on the other hand, invested millions in enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions like Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, or Oracle, to manage payroll in-house. Cercli aims to replace these outdated methods with its single platform, which reduces human error and ensures full compliance for companies.
The platform initially focused on building a native payroll system for businesses to manage and pay employees locally. However, as the platform grew, clients started requesting remote payroll solutions. Global platforms like Deel or RemotePass were useful for managing remote contractor payroll or employee records, but they weren’t reliable for handling local payroll needs. Cercli stepped in to provide a solution that handles both local and global payroll needs, meeting compliance requirements specific to the MENA region.
The ability to meet localized compliance requirements is a crucial advantage offered by Cercli. Compliance with specific labor laws and processing salaries for employees without bank accounts on behalf of clients are examples of how localization adds value. Companies that fail to meet compliance requirements can face significant payroll expenses. Cercli focuses on mid-market enterprises, where the need for integrated and compliant solutions across HR, finance, accounting, legal, and IT is most pronounced.
Cercli has already gained traction in the market, with a growing client base of companies with two to 500 employees. Since its launch earlier this year, the company claims to have grown 25% month-on-month and has paid out over $23 million in employee salaries across 31 countries.
The demand for payroll and HR solutions is surging across emerging markets as global companies seek more value. Acquisitions in the industry, such as Payoneer’s acquisition of Skuad and Deel’s acquisition of PaySpace, highlight this trend. However, consolidation is still in the early stages in the MENA region. Cercli aims to be a leader in the market by becoming one of the first companies to “codify regulations” in the region.
While Cercli currently has few direct competitors in the MENA region, companies like RemotePass and Workpay, which recently localized their products for the MENA market, could potentially become competitors in the future. Cercli’s seed round of funding, which included participation from Y Combinator, COTU Ventures, and Rebel Fund, will be used to grow the team, develop adjacent products for other customer segments, and expand its presence in core markets.
In conclusion, Cercli is addressing the significant challenges and inefficiencies in payroll management in the MENA region with its unified platform. By providing businesses with a solution to hire, manage, and pay their global workforce, Cercli aims to reduce human error, ensure compliance, and streamline payroll processes. With its recent seed funding and growing client base, Cercli is well-positioned to become a leader in the payroll management industry in the MENA region.
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