Building a Global Employment Platform From the Middle East

UAE-based global employment and payroll platform RemotePass has raised $17.4 million in Series B funding as it looks to expand across Europe and the United States while deepening its AI and fintech capabilities. The round was led by EBRD Venture Capital, with participation from 500 Global and existing investors including Oraseya Capital, 212 VC, Access Bridge Ventures, and Khwarizmi Ventures.

Founded in 2021 by Kamal Reggad and Karim Nadi, RemotePass has grown into a global platform that helps businesses manage international hiring, payroll, contractor payments, and workforce spending across more than 150 countries.

The company operates in one of the fastest-growing segments of enterprise infrastructure, where businesses increasingly require tools capable of managing distributed teams across multiple jurisdictions, currencies, and employment models.

But unlike many global HR platforms built primarily for Western markets, RemotePass has positioned itself around an underserved reality: the operational complexity of emerging markets, particularly across the Middle East and North Africa.

Solving Cross-Border Work Challenges in Emerging Markets

As remote work accelerated globally, companies gained access to talent from virtually anywhere. Yet the operational infrastructure required to support global employment remained fragmented, particularly in emerging economies where labor regulations, payment systems, and financial access vary significantly.

RemotePass was built to solve these gaps.

The platform provides businesses with tools for payroll management, contractor payments, onboarding, compliance, and workforce operations while also addressing financial challenges faced by workers themselves.

This dual focus has become one of the company’s strongest differentiators.

For workers across the MENA region dealing with volatile local currencies and delayed international transfers, RemotePass provides access to USD accounts, global debit cards, and premium health insurance.

These financial services are particularly important in markets where traditional payroll systems and banking infrastructure often fail to support globally distributed employment.

Building Infrastructure Where Others Overlooked

According to CEO and Co-Founder Kamal Reggad, RemotePass succeeded by focusing deeply on regional problems that many global incumbents underestimated.

The company built payment rails across markets where international platforms often struggle to operate effectively while also providing 24/7 support in both Arabic and English. It also developed operational expertise around regional labor regulations and compliance frameworks that are frequently difficult for global platforms to navigate.

This regional depth helped RemotePass secure customers ranging from major MENA technology companies such as Tabby and Careem to international enterprises including Logitech, Tata Group, and InDrive.

“Building a globally competitive platform from the region, in a market that incumbents underestimated, is something we are incredibly proud of,” said Reggad.

Scaling Profitably Before Expanding Aggressively

One of the more notable aspects of RemotePass’s growth story is its capital efficiency.

The company reached profitability in early 2025 before making a deliberate decision to reinvest into expansion, AI infrastructure, and embedded financial products.

To date, RemotePass has scaled to more than 35,000 workers globally and processed over $800 million in cross-border payroll while raising significantly less capital than many category competitors.

This operational discipline became a major factor behind investor confidence.

EBRD Venture Capital noted that the company had reached meaningful scale with only a fraction of the capital raised by larger global players, highlighting the execution efficiency of the founding team.

Combining Payroll, Fintech, and AI Into One Platform

In late 2025, RemotePass expanded beyond payroll infrastructure with the launch of SpendCards, a product integrating payroll, contractor payments, and corporate expense management into a single platform.

The move reflects a broader industry trend where HR technology increasingly overlaps with embedded finance and workforce banking.

By consolidating payments, expenses, and employment infrastructure into one system, RemotePass is attempting to reduce operational friction for globally distributed companies while creating a more seamless financial experience for workers.

At the same time, the company has also integrated AI agents across onboarding, compliance, and customer support workflows. These systems automate repetitive operational tasks and function as workflow extensions for HR and finance teams.

500 Global described this combination of workforce infrastructure, fintech integration, and early AI investment as a structural advantage that is difficult for competitors to replicate.

Expanding Beyond the Middle East

Although RemotePass built its initial advantage through emerging market expertise, the company is now positioning itself as a global infrastructure platform.

The newly raised Series B funding will support expansion into Europe and the US while deepening compliance coverage across existing markets. The company also plans to continue investing heavily in financial services products and AI capabilities.

This next phase reflects a larger ambition. RemotePass is no longer simply solving remote hiring challenges for MENA companies. It is attempting to compete globally in a category increasingly critical to how modern businesses operate.

Building the Infrastructure Layer for Global Work

The rise of distributed workforces has fundamentally changed how companies hire, manage, and compensate talent. Yet much of the infrastructure powering this shift remains fragmented across payroll providers, compliance systems, expense management tools, and financial services.

RemotePass is betting that the future belongs to integrated platforms capable of handling all of these layers simultaneously.

By combining global employment infrastructure, embedded finance, AI automation, and emerging market expertise, the company is positioning itself as a foundational operating layer for international work.

If successful, RemotePass may not simply help companies hire remotely.

It could become part of the infrastructure that defines how global work itself operates.

Mohammed Abubakr

Mohammed Abubakr is the Founder & Editor of StartupMuslim.com. Through StartupMuslim, he documents the journeys of Muslim founders across industries, focusing on the challenges they overcome, the vision that drives them, and the impact they create.His work centers on building a narrative layer for the global Muslim startup ecosystem—one that not only highlights success, but also captures the process, discipline, and values behind it. By conducting in-depth interviews and publishing founder stories, he aims to inspire and enable the next generation of Muslim entrepreneurs to think bigger and build with purpose.