- UAE-based workforce management platform Cercli raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Germany’s Picus Capital.
- The round also saw participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory, Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures, as well as individual investors from OpenFX, Buk, JetHR, Truelayer, and AI71.
- Founded in 2023 by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, Cercli offers enterprises a unified, AI-powered system of record for hiring, managing, and paying their workforce – both human and agentic.
- The new funding will support product development, AI innovation, and global expansion, as Cercli scales its platform and team across MENA, Europe, and North America.
Press release:
Cercli, the modern platform for enterprises to hire, manage, and pay their global workforce in the age of AI, has announced a $12 million Series A round led by Germany-headquartered Picus Capital. The round also saw participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory, existing investors Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures, who doubled down on their conviction in Cercli’s momentum, as well as individual investors including Prabhakar Reddy from OpenFX, Jaime Arrieta from Buk, Marco Ogliengo and Francesco Scalambrino from Jet HR, Francesco Simoneschi from Truelayer, Mehdi Ghissassi from AI71.
This investment marks the first in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) for Picus Capital, which manages assets over $1 billion across its portfolio. Picus is invested in global HR SaaS businesses, including Personio, Multiplier, Deel, Maki, and JetHR, all category leaders in their respective regions. This deal marks a continuation of Picus’ sector strategy into one of the world’s fastest-growing technology markets, as Cercli aspires to create the single platform for enterprises to manage their people, data and agents in the AI era.
Over the past 12 months, Cercli has achieved 10x revenue growth with its customer base ranging from startups to large multinational corporations, including Vision Bank, Backlite Media (part of Abu Dhabi-listed Multiply Group), Global Climate Finance Centre, Huspy, Lean Technologies and Ziina. The company has processed payroll distributions across 50 countries, totalling over $100 million in employee salaries in the past 12 months, servicing enterprises that range from 25 to 1,000 employees in the MENA region and beyond.
“The growth momentum we’ve seen in the past 12 months has been remarkable and played a key role in attracting talent, customers and investors,” said Akeed Azmi, co-founder and CEO of Cercli. “Businesses recognise the benefit of a unified platform as a single source of truth in managing their greatest asset, their people. For us, it’s an exciting time to be building for the AI era, as there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to disrupt the 800 pound gorillas in the ERP market that was long held untouchable by the likes of Workday, SAP and Oracle.”
With 22% MoM growth, Cercli is addressing the $5.8 billion HR software market opportunity in MENA, with enterprises still using legacy ERP systems which haven’t evolved for the needs of the modern workforce. The regional market is experiencing rapid modernization, with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program alone driving over $500 billion in economic projects requiring modern workforce management capabilities.
Cercli’s AI strategy was designed to first deploy internal AI solutions, which enabled new products and features to be shipped faster and meet customer needs. This speed has enabled business leaders to migrate entire organisations to Cercli’s platform within 48 – 72 hours, instead of 9 months with legacy software providers, leading to increased demand from upmarket enterprises.
“Cercli has a unique founding team which is evident from the velocity of their product expansion strategy. They are shipping incredibly fast, in a region undergoing rapid transformation and a tech-savvy workforce that wants AI-native solutions for workplace management.” said Robin Godenrath. Founding Partner, Picus Capital. “We’ve seen this business model succeed globally within our portfolio, and we are excited to back Cercli as they continue to grow market share through new customers and product launches.”
As part of this investment, Cercli will focus on the development of new AI-native products and services, further building out into adjacent products as customers seek to shift to an all-in-one suite.
“We recognised the need to not just add new features but to rebuild workforce management from the ground up with AI at its core,” said David Reche, co-founder and CTPO of Cercli. “This gives us a fundamental advantage in delivering the efficiency, integration and intelligence that modern businesses need. As we scale, we’re focused on attracting world-class talent from around the globe to join our mission of transforming how businesses manage their workforce – human or agentic.”
Cercli will also continue to invest in building on its commitment to attract global technology talent to the region. Since 2024, Cercli has recruited professionals from some of the world’s most recognised companies, including Google, Meta, Deel, Booking.com, Rippling and Goldman Sachs.