Cercli, a payroll startup founded in January 2024, has secured $4 million in seed funding with ambitions to revolutionize payroll management across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The funding round was led by San Francisco-based Afore Capital, making its first foray into the region. Cercli, co-founded by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, aims to become the "Rippling" of MENA, drawing inspiration from the successful U.S.-based HR and payroll platform, Rippling. Less than a year into its operations, Cercli has experienced rapid growth, claiming a 25% month-on-month increase and processing over $23 million in employee salaries across 31 countries. This expansion highlights the immense demand for efficient payroll management solutions in emerging markets, a demand that is equally relevant in Nigeria's rapidly growing economy. Cercli’s platform, designed to integrate payroll processing with compliance management, seeks to replace outdated systems like error-prone spreadsheets and overly complex ERP solutions. With this new investment, Cercli is poised to expand its team, develop additional products tailored to SMEs and large enterprises, and strengthen its market presence in core MENA regions—a strategy that could potentially include expansion into the Nigerian market. The move underscores the growing interest of international investors in the African tech landscape, particularly in sectors like HR and payroll, where inefficiencies still plague many businesses.
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