Deel
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Investors
Founders
About
Deel is a global payroll and compliance platform that enables companies to hire and pay workers in over 150 countries 1. The company was co-founded in 2018 by MIT alumni Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, went through Y Combinator in 2019, and surpassed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue in 2025 23.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Pre-Seed | $0.15M | Y Combinator | — | — |
| May 2020 | Series A | $14M | Andreessen Horowitz | SV Angel, Soma Capital, angel investors 5 | — |
| Sep 2020 | Series B | $30M | Spark Capital | Andreessen Horowitz, YC Growth Fund, angel investors incl. Nat Friedman, Ryan Petersen, John Zimmer, Alexis Ohanian 6 | — |
| Apr 2021 | Series C | $156M | YC Continuity Fund | Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, Dara Khosrowshahi, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lachy Groom, Anthony Schiller 7 | $1.25B |
| Oct 2021 | Series D | $425M | Coatue | Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, YC Continuity Fund, Spark Capital, Greenbay Ventures, Neo 8 | $5.5B |
| May 2022 | Series D Extension | $50M | Emerson Collective | Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, Y Combinator 9 | $12B |
| Oct 2025 | Series E | $300M | Ribbit Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue | General Catalyst, Greenbay Ventures 2 | $17.3B |
What Investors Say
Anish Acharya, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz (Series A lead): “The Deel guys simply knew more about global payroll + compliance than any other team we encountered.” He also noted: “The sheer product progress they made in the months that we spent getting to know the team was extraordinary.” 10
Anish Acharya, Andreessen Horowitz (Series D): “The future is bright for Deel, but even brighter for the international teams they’re helping unlock.” 8
Rahul Kishore, Senior Managing Director, Coatue (Series D co-lead): “We had been tracking Deel since 2020 and were impressed by Alex and Shuo’s vision…we believe we are in the early innings of what the team is capable of.” 8
Lucas Swisher, General Partner, Coatue (Series D co-lead): “We were impressed by how the platform was able to distill something so overwhelming into a tool anyone can use.” 8
Micky Malka, Founder, Ribbit Capital (Series E): “Deel – itself a fully remote, global company with employees in over 100 countries – is uniquely positioned to build products for global expansion. The company and its leadership have a limitless opportunity ahead of them.” 2
Avichal Garg, Electric Capital: “Alex and Shuo are easily in the top 0.1% of entrepreneurs in terms of speed of execution. They just live at 10x speed and built a company that does as well.” 10
Anthony Schiller, Green Bay Ventures: “Deel never outsources their technology or compliance to third parties. They own and operate all of their infrastructure.” 10
Brianne Kimmel, Worklife Ventures: “Deel’s success can be attributed to brute force and consistent execution, not white space or timing.” 10
Martin Tobias, Incisive Ventures: “The pandemic was rocket fuel on the demand for remote workers and Deel was in the right place at the right time.” 10
What Founders Say
Alex Bouaziz, CEO & Co-Founder: “The way people work is fundamentally changing. And it’s never going back. We founded Deel because we didn’t want hiring or payments to prevent businesses from building the best global teams and finding the best global talent.” 8
Alex Bouaziz, CEO & Co-Founder, on fundraising philosophy: “When you’re fundraising, you’re basically selling a part of your business… in my opinion, you should always be in a position where you don’t actually need it.” 11
Vinay Hiremath, Co-Founder, Loom (portfolio founder/angel): “Top reasons 1-3 are Alex Bouaziz. The founder vibe is impeccable. Hustling to sell Deel relentlessly over text, email.” 10
Sources
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Deel website, “About,” accessed March 2026. https://www.deel.com↩
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Crunchbase News, “Deel Lands $300M At $17.3B Valuation Amid Spying Saga, Uptick In HR Software Funding,” October 2025. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/deel-ai-hr-payroll-unicorn-saas-ribbit-a16z/↩↩↩↩
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Calcalist Tech, “Deel raises $300 million at $17.3 billion valuation,” October 2025. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bkrei8rtlg↩
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Crunchbase, “Deel Pre-Seed Funding Round,” accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/deel-pre-seed–3a984352↩
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CNBC, “Remote work start-up Deel scores $14 million investment led by Andreessen Horowitz,” May 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/remote-work-andreessen-horowitz-leads-14-million-round-in-deel-payroll-start-up.html↩↩
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BusinessWire, “Deel Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding,” September 2020. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200909005149/en/Deel-Raises-%2430-Million-in-Series-B-Funding-to-Break-the-Confines-of-Geographically-Concentrated-Workforces-Enabling-Businesses-to-Legally-Hire-Anyone-Anywhere-in-the-World↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Remote hiring startup Deel raises $156M at a $1.25B valuation after 20x growth in 2020,” April 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/21/remote-hiring-startup-deel-raises-156m-at-a-1-25b-valuation-after-20x-growth-in-2020/↩↩
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GlobeNewsWire, “Deel Raises $425M in Series D funding to continue transforming the future of work,” October 2021. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/10/18/2315776/0/en/Deel-Raises-425M-in-Series-D-funding-to-continue-transforming-the-future-of-work.html↩↩↩↩↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Fueled by the remote work revolution, Deel more than doubles valuation to $12B with new raise,” May 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/11/fueled-by-the-remote-work-revolution-deel-more-than-doubles-valuation-to-12b-with-new-raise/↩↩
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Signature Block, “Why they invested: Deel,” accessed March 2026. https://www.signatureblock.co/articles/why-they-invested-deel↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Sourcery VC, “BREAKING: Deel Hits $1.4B+ ARR | CEO Alex Bouaziz,” accessed March 2026. https://www.sourcery.vc/p/breaking-deel-hits-14b-arr-ceo-alex↩