Cercli is Building the People Operating System for MENA Region Businesses, Handling Payroll, Compliance, HR, and More

Cercli, a people OS for businesses, led by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, has secured $12 million in Series A led by Picus Capital with participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory, RZM Investment, with existing investors Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and Cotu Ventures all doubling down - alongside angel 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, and Gerry Colyer from Clara.

Over the past year, revenue grew tenfold, serving clients from startups to multinational corporations, including Vision Bank, Backlite Media, Global Climate Finance Centre, Huspy, Lean Technologies, and Ziina. During this period, the company processed payroll across 50 countries, distributing more than $100 million in employee salaries.

This funding will accelerate three key areas for customers: faster product development, with new AI-native features that save teams hours on routine HR tasks; rock-solid reliability, supported by top engineering talent to keep the platform fast and secure; and expanded coverage, building global payroll and compliance capabilities to ensure teams are paid accurately and on time, no matter where they operate.

Cercli is now expanding to the very start of the hiring journey with its new AI recruitment assistant, Cera. From candidate applications to a seamless hiring process, everything can now be managed in a single platform.