YC alum Cercli, an AI-powered Rippling company for MENA, raises $12M Series A

In a region long characterized by fragmented enterprise systems, outdated compliance tools, and HR software that rarely handles finance, Cercli is building a unified alternative for businesses in the MENA region with AI at its core.

The Dubai-based startup, founded by former Careem operators Akid Azmi and David Resch, has announced a $12 million funding round led by European VC firm Picus Capital.

Today Cercli looks a little different from the company that raised a $4 million seed round last year. It rebuilds a Wave-like stack for the MENA region, but makes it AI-compatible from the ground up.

Over the past year, this bet has paid off. The company says it has increased its revenue more than 10-fold and now processes more than $100 million in payroll annually for multiple companies in 50 countries.

But in a crowded HR tech market — where dozens of startups like Deel and Remote, along with established companies like SAP and Oracle, promise everything from cross-border payments to payroll — why does the market need another HR tech player? CEO Azmi hopes that AI-first rebuilding will be its differentiator.

Azmi founded Cercli to help businesses with basic people processes, a problem he and Richie observed in their previous companies, Careem and Kitopi, two of the most popular startups in the MENA region.

With payroll spread across multiple systems and compliance varying by region, the first release of Cercli focused on a platform that integrates HR management, payroll, and compliance for companies based in the MENA region and operating globally.

But Azmi says he envisions a greater opportunity if it focuses on artificial intelligence. So, over the past three months, Azmi says, the company has completely rewritten its payroll engine to be multi-country and agent compatible, enabling it to scale more efficiently across global jurisdictions.

“Legacy systems over the last 20 years — SAPs, Oracles, Workdays — were designed to run on-premises and in the cloud,” Azmi said in an interview with TechCrunch. “We are now entering an AI-native world.” “We didn’t just want to incorporate AI, we wanted to rethink the entire stack in terms of how people and agents work together.”

He also did the same with his recruiting unit. Cercli now offers agent-based features that can display candidate lists, source from internal datasets, and trigger background logic when hiring is appropriate.

Its internal operations are powered using artificial intelligence, with the company using specially designed treasury and settlement agents to manage its finances and accounting. This is how the 14-person team closed the Series A while maintaining a 21% monthly revenue growth rate, according to Azmi.

Beyond AI, the founder believes Chirkley’s other strength is integration. Although there are plenty of multi-unit HR competitors, including Deel, Rippling and BambooHR, MENA companies often bring their back offices together through point solutions. A company may use different products to manage expenses, payroll, or staffing.

“Customers demand everything in one place, and being AI specialists allows us to build that unified experience much more quickly,” Azmi explained.

Cercli’s AI-driven architecture allows it to onboard customers quickly as well, Azmi said. He claims that setup can be done in two to three days, compared to several months typical with older systems. This has helped the two-year-old HR technology startup gain clients from startups to multinational corporations, including Vision Bank, the Global Center for Climate Finance, Huspy, Lean Technologies and Ziina.

Circle is also Pecos Capital’s first investment in the MENA region. This company has supported other global HR companies such as Personio, Multiplier, Deel, Maki, and JetHR.

Other investors participating in this Series A round include Knollwood Investment Advisory as well as existing investors Y Combinator, Afore Capital and COTU Ventures.

As part of the investment, the company plans to build new AI-driven products and work to gain more market share in the $5.8 billion HR software opportunity in the MENA region.

“We have seen the success of this business model globally within our portfolio, and we are excited to support Cercli as they continue to grow their market share through new customers and product launches,” said Robin Goodenrath, founding partner at Picus Capital.