Cercli is a modern platform that has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Picus Capital, a firm based in Germany. Other participants included Knollwood Investment Advisory, Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures, who increased their investment in Cercli.
Several individual investors also joined the round, including Prabhakar Reddy (OpenFX), Jaime Arrieta (Buk), Marco Ogliengo and Francesco Scalambrino (Jet HR), Francesco Simoneschi (Truelayer), and Mehdi Ghissassi (AI71).
This is Picus Capital’s first investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The firm manages over $1 billion in assets and has invested in leading HR SaaS companies like Personio, Multiplier, Deel, Maki, and JetHR.
The investment continues Picus’ focus on fast-growing tech markets. Cercli aims to become the go-to platform for companies to manage their people, data, and agents in the age of AI.
“The growth momentum we’ve seen in the past 12 months has been remarkable and played a key role in attracting talent, customers and investors,” said Akeed Azmi, co-founder and CEO of Cercli. “Businesses recognise the benefit of a unified platform as a single source of truth in managing their greatest asset, their people. For us, it’s an exciting time to be building for the AI era, as there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to disrupt the 800 pound gorillas in the ERP market that was long held untouchable by the likes of Workday, SAP and Oracle.”
Cercli is growing fast, with 22% month-on-month growth, and is targeting the $5.8 billion HR software market in MENA. Many companies in the region still use old ERP systems that don’t meet the needs of today’s workforce.
The region is modernizing quickly, with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 alone driving over $500 billion in projects that require modern workforce management tools.
Cercli uses AI to build internal solutions that allow new products and features to be launched faster. This lets companies move to Cercli’s platform in just 2–3 days, compared to 9 months with old software, creating high demand from large enterprises.
“Cercli has a unique founding team which is evident from the velocity of their product expansion strategy. They are shipping incredibly fast, in a region undergoing rapid transformation and a tech-savvy workforce that wants AI-native solutions for workplace management.” said Robin Godenrath. Founding Partner, Picus Capital. “We’ve seen this business model succeed globally within our portfolio, and we are excited to back Cercli as they continue to grow market share through new customers and product launches.”
“We recognised the need not just to add new features, but to rebuild workforce management from the ground up with AI at its core,” said David Reche, co-founder and CTPO of Cercli. “This gives us a fundamental advantage in delivering the efficiency, integration and intelligence that modern businesses need. As we scale, we’re focused on attracting world-class talent from around the globe to join our mission of transforming how businesses manage their workforce – human or agentic.”
Cercli is a single platform that helps businesses hire, manage and pay employees around the world. Founded in 2023 by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, it replaces old, separate systems with a modern, AI-powered solution for HR, payroll, and compliance.
Supported by top investors like Picus Capital, Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures, Cercli serves companies that have teams in over 50 countries.
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