Cercli, the modern enterprise platform for hiring, managing, and paying global teams in the age of AI, has announced a $12 million Series A round led by Picus Capital, marking the firm’s first investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The round also saw participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory, Y Combinator, Afore Capital, COTU Ventures, and several prominent angel investors including Prabhakar Reddy (OpenFX), Jaime Arrieta (Buk), Marco Ogliengo and Francesco Scalambrino (Jet HR), Francesco Simoneschi (Truelayer), and Mehdi Ghissassi (AI71).
Founded by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, Cercli has achieved 10x revenue growth in the past year, processing over $100 million in payroll across 50 countries. Its AI-native platform enables enterprises — from startups to multinational corporations — to manage people, data, and agents through a single, unified system.
The new capital will drive AI product development and global talent recruitment, reinforcing Cercli’s vision to challenge legacy ERP giants like Workday, SAP, and Oracle, and establish itself as the next-generation workforce platform for a rapidly modernizing region.
Featured image: Credit: Cercli
