With remote working becoming more common, organizations around the world are adapting, especially with onboarding procedures for new employees and managing the complexities of cross-border payments. This new era of work has led to a surge in demand for startups that provide HR, payroll, and compliance tools to help businesses hire remotely.
Remotepass one such company from the United Arab Emirates, has raised $5,5 million in Series A funding led by New York-based 212 VCs. Other participating investors include Endeavor Catalyst, Khwarizmi Ventures, Oraseya Capital, Flyer One Ventures, Access Bridge Ventures, A15 and Swiss Founders Fund.
CEO Kamal Reggad and Karim Nadi founded RemotePass in late 2020 to enable companies to onboard, manage and pay their worker base in countries where they lack a legal local presence. Serving a variety of clients from startups to large enterprises, including Spotify and Logitech, the platform makes it easy to hire contractors and full-time employees in more than 150 countries.
But RemotePass didn't start with this premise. A year before launch, it was SafarPass, offering a SaaS platform to streamline business travel and expense management through a dedicated app. The idea was to address the prevalent disorder in corporate travel, which sparked significant interest until the onset of the global pandemic.
In an interview, Reggad said that as SafarPass faced new challenges, it was becoming increasingly clear that the pandemic would prolong the recovery in business travel. A change in the market meant that a pivot became inevitable. At the time, SafarPass, even before the pandemic, operated as a remote team consisting of 18 employees across the UAE, Africa and Europe. As such, Reggad gained first-hand insight into the complexities of managing a remote workforce and overcoming the associated payment hurdles, thus laying the foundation for RemotePass.
“We had to deal with payment issues at the end of each month. In the case of contract work, one was not so sure of general compliance. We knew that if we had this problem as a company founded six months ago, our clients could also have it,” Reggad commented. “If you look at the Middle East, for example, there are different countries with their currencies, laws and complexities in terms of financial services and benefits. And we decided to create something that would allow these companies to easily incorporate payments and manage their team members.”
Taking advantage of the opportunity derived from the pandemic, when the world began to adopt the remote work At scale, RemotePass grew 35% month over month during its first two years, driven primarily by customer referrals. The CEO said the platform, which offers users multiple payment options, doubled its revenue between 2022 and 2023. Customer and revenue growth was fueled by $5,4 million in venture capital that RemotePass has obtained, money that it used to grow its platform and serve more than 600 companies and 8.000 remote workers in emerging markets.
Several companies are actively facilitating remote work and helping employees receive payments from employers. While industry giants like Share (which acquired African HR and payroll platform PaySpace) Y Remote dominate a significant portion of market share, RemotePass says it distinguishes itself by leveraging its expertise in emerging markets, particularly the Middle East and Africa.
Reggad emphasizes RemotePass' localized approach through its super app, whose features (such as dollar debit cards that allow users to hold funds in US dollars, mitigating risks associated with currency fluctuations, and monthly health insurance benefits that extend to dependents) adapt to the unique needs of end users in these markets. The Dubai-based startup works with third-party providers for its insurance product and, in addition to an end-to-end contractor management platform, also provides companies with EoR (Employer of Record) services and outplacement support.
Employer of Record (EoR) allows you to grow a global workforce without needing to set up new entities around the world. When hiring top talent overseas an EoR solution will do the legwork, such as managing international recruiting, onboarding, payroll and compliance from a single, easy-to-use tool.
“When our clients hire, they care about remote workers. That's why they like what we offer in terms of financial services and benefits and giving these flexibilities to those workers,” said the CEO who worked in the United States as a systems engineer before returning to Morocco in 2011 to found Hmizate, a trips. and e-commerce shopping site that was eventually sold. “At the end of the day, it all comes down to retention. If a contractor or full-time employee is happy and has this ecosystem of services, he will be better off and able to stay longer.”
RemotePass generates revenue through a subscription model. The fee for hiring contractors is $40 per month per active contractor. For companies hiring full-time employees, subscription fees range from $350 to $699 per month per employee, depending on the country and specific immigration and relocation services requirements. While contractors and full-time employees currently need their employers to have RemotePass, that may not remain the case for long as the platform works to create access for end users independently, leading to a new source of income for the platform in the future.
With this growth capital, RemotePass' focus is two-fold. First, it is stepping up its efforts to improve the enterprise readiness of its product. Second, it intends to add more business in Saudi Arabia, where it has seen the most growth, and double down on product localization.
“Witnessing RemotePass’ remarkable product growth and excellent customer service since early 2023 solidified our belief in their visionary team and business model,” Ali Hikmet Karabey, CEO of 212 VC, said in a statement. “In addressing current workforce challenges such as talent mobility and remote work, RemotePass stands out as a key enabler. It connects companies seeking a broader talent pool with emerging market talent that previously lacked access to global financial solutions and processes. “This disruption positions them as game-changers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, hubs poised for global dominance.”
