Circley raises $12 million in Series A funding round for its AI-based employee platform
Cercli's revenue has grown tenfold over the past 12 months as companies adopt a shift towards unique, AI-based HR recording systems.
Circly's systems handle more than $100 million in employee payroll transactions in more than 50 countries.
Picos Capital's first investment in the MENA region indicates significant confidence by venture capital funds in the region's technology system.
The funding is expected to accelerate product development, geographical expansion and the growth of the company's team as the HR software market in the MENA region reaches $5.8 billion.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates – October 22, 2025 – Cercli (www.cercli.com), the modern unified platform for enabling AI-era companies to hire, manage and pay the workforce, has announced the success of a series A funding round that has raised $12 million led by Germany-based Picus Capital.
Knollwood Investment Advisory participated in the funding round along with existing investors Y Combinator, Afore Capital and COTU Ventures, who showed increased interest in Circley's capabilities and the clear impact it continues to make in this area. Individual investors also participated in the tour, including OpenFX's Prabacar Reddy, Buk's Jimmy Arieta, Marco Oleingo and Francisco Scalambrino of Jet HR, Truelayer's Truelayer's Ghssi, and AI71's Mehdi Ghassi.
This is the first investment for Becos Capital in the Middle East and North Africa, which manages assets worth more than $1 billion across its investment portfolio. Picus invests in international companies specializing in providing human resources services, including Personio, Multiplier, Del, Maki and HR, all of which are among the most prominent companies in this field within its areas of operation. The transaction represents a continuation of Becos' segmental strategy in one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets, as Cirkley aspires to create a unified platform that allows companies to manage their employees, data and agents in the era of artificial intelligence.
Over the past 12 months, Cirley has achieved a tenfold revenue growth, with its customer base varied among startups and large multinational companies, such as Vision Bank, Backlite Media (a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-listed Multiplay Group), the Global Climate Finance Center, Huspy, Lean Technologies and Zeina. The company processes the distribution of employees' salaries to institutions in 50 countries, with a total value of more than $100 million over the past 12 months, providing its services to organizations with between 25 and 1,000 employees in the Middle East and North Africa region and beyond.
On this occasion, Akid Azmi, co-founder and CEO of Circley, said that the company has witnessed remarkable growth over the past 12 months, noting that this growth has played a pivotal role in attracting talent, customers and investors. He added: “Companies recognize the importance of having a unified platform that is a reliable source for managing employees who are the most important assets of organizations. So we see that the time has come to embark on the era of artificial intelligence that gives us a unique opportunity to make a paradigm shift in the ERP solutions market, which has long been captured by companies such as Workday, SAP and Oracle.
With a growth of 22% on a monthly basis, Cerkley seeks to capitalize on the opportunities in the $5.8 billion HR software market in the MENA region, where companies continue to use legacy ERP systems that have not been developed to meet the needs of the modern workforce. The regional market is witnessing rapid systems modernizations, as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 alone contributes to financing economic projects worth more than $500 billion, and require modern workforce management capabilities.
Cirkley's AI strategy was designed to employ internal AI solutions first, enabling the company to introduce new products and features and meet customer needs quickly, allowing business leaders to move their entire organizations to the Circly platform in a period of 48 to 72 hours, instead of the 9 months required to work with traditional software solution providers, which led to increased demand from high-quality service and product companies.
For his part, Robin Godnrath, co-founder of Becos Capital, praised the founding team at Cirkley, pointing out that the company is quickly implementing its strategy to expand its products. He said that the company is launching its products very quickly in a region that is experiencing a rapid transformation and a technologically knowledgeable workforce that is willing to integrated solutions with artificial intelligence technologies for workplace management. He added: “We have witnessed the success of this global business model within our investment portfolio, and we are excited to support Circly as it continues to grow its market share by attracting new customers and launching new products.”
As part of this investment, Cirley is set to continue developing new products and services based on artificial intelligence, while continuing to develop complementary products as customers seek to