YC alumnus Cercli, AI-powered Rippleing for MENA, raises oversubscribed $12M Series A

In a sector long defined by fragmented enterprise systems, outdated compliance tools, and HR software that rarely talks finance, Cercli Building an integrated option for MENA businesses with AI at the core.

Dubai-based startup founded by ex-Kareem operators Aqid Azmi And David Rechehas announced an oversubscribed Series A round of $12 million led by European VC Picus Capital.

Cercli looks a little different today from the company that raised a $4 million seed round last year. It is rebuilding a Ripple-like stack for the MENA region, but making it AI-native from the ground up.

In the past year, that gamble has paid off. The company says it has grown revenue more than 10 times and now processes more than $100 million of payroll annually for multiple businesses in 50 countries.

But in a crowded HR-tech market – where dozens of startups like Deal and Remote, along with incumbents like SAP and Oracle, already promise everything from cross-border payments to payroll – why does the market need another HR tech player? CEO Azmi hopes its AI-first reinvention can be the edge that sets it apart.

Azmi started Cerkly to help enterprises improve core people operations, an issue he and Reche had seen at their previous employers, Careem and Kitopi, two of MENA’s most famous unicorns.

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

But Azmi says he envisioned a bigger opportunity if he worked in AI. So, over the past three months, Azmi says the company has rewritten its entire payroll engine to be multi-country and agent-compatible, enabling it to scale more efficiently across global jurisdictions.

“The legacy systems of the last 20 years – your SAP, Oracle, Workday – were built for on-premises and cloud. Now we’re entering an AI-native world,” Azmi said in an interview with TechCrunch. “We didn’t just want to integrate AI; we wanted to rethink the whole set of how people and agents work together.”

It has done the same with its recruitment module. Cercli now offers agent-driven features that can generate candidate lists, source from internal datasets, and run background logic tailored to recruiting.

Its own internal operations run on AI, as the company uses custom-built treasury and reconciliation agents to manage its own finances and accounting. According to Azmi, this is how the 14-person team closed its Series A while maintaining a 21% monthly revenue growth rate.

Beyond AI, the founder believes Sercly’s other strength lies in consolidation. Although plenty of multi-module HR competitors exist – including Deal, Rippling, BambooHR – MENA companies are often piecing together their back offices from point solutions. A company may use different products for expense management, payroll or recruiting.

“Customers are demanding everything in one place, and being AI-native allows us to create that integrated experience more quickly,” Azmi explained.

Azmi said Cercli’s AI-native architecture enables it to quickly onboard customers. They claim setup can be done in two to three days, whereas older systems would take several months. This has helped the two-year-old HR-tech startup win customers ranging from startups to multinationals, including Vision Bank, Global Climate Finance Centre, Huspi, Lean Technologies and Zina.

Cercli is also the first MENA investment for Picus Capital. The firm has backed other global HR companies like Personio, Multiplier, Deal, Maki, and JetHR.

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

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

“We have seen this business model succeed globally within our portfolio, and we are excited to support Sercly as they grow market share through new customers and product launches,” said Robin Godenrath, founding partner of Picus Capital.