Deel’s CEO recounts “embarrassing” beginnings as valuation hits $17.3 billion
Bouaziz’s candid post revisited the startup’s uncertain origins amid its ongoing clash with Rippling.
Deel co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz offered an unusually candid look at his company’s origins this week, describing the “small and shaky” beginnings that preceded the rise of one of the world’s most valuable HR technology firms.
In a personal LinkedIn post published shortly after Deel announced a $300 million funding round at a $17.3 billion valuation, Bouaziz reflected on a six-year journey marked by repeated missteps, unexpected pivots, and eventual breakthrough.
“Shuo and I started about six years ago, struggling to even make $10,000,” Bouaziz wrote, referring to co-founder Shuo Wang. “Our original idea was to ensure freelancers got paid and not ghosted after delivering work. We built an escrow platform… Nobody cared.”
Bouaziz described “pivot hell,” including a brief stint collecting debts on behalf of freelancers before discovering the real opportunity lay in managing global contracts and payments. The turning point came when a Y Combinator batchmate used Deel’s tool to tie payments to milestones, inadvertently revealing the business model that would define the company’s future.
“Within ten days we had 290 contractors and $5,000 in monthly revenue,” Bouaziz wrote. “This business only scaled to +$100 million.”
Founded in 2019, Deel now helps companies hire and pay international employees and contractors while managing compliance with local labor laws. It processes $22 billion in annual payroll for 37,000 clients across 150 countries. The company surpassed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue earlier in 2025 and, according to Bouaziz, crossed $100 million in monthly revenue for the first time in September. Deel generates roughly $15 million to $17 million in monthly EBITDA, he added.
The latest Series E round, led by Ribbit Capital with Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue Management, comes amid a widening legal battle with U.S. rival Rippling. Rippling has sued Deel alleging racketeering, trade-secret misappropriation, and unfair competition. Deel, in turn, filed a defamation suit in April, calling Rippling’s allegations a “multi-year smear campaign.”
Related articles:
Bouaziz declined to comment on the litigation beyond describing it as a “frivolous lawsuit.” Earlier this year, Rippling raised $450 million in a Series G funding round valuing it at $16.8 billion, while Deel was valued at $12.6 billion following a $300 million secondary share purchase by General Catalyst and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala.
Deel’s latest round caps an eventful year that also saw the company acquire its London-based Omnipresent in a deal worth around $15 million.
Bouaziz’s post stood out less for the numbers than for its tone. He shared his immigrant family background - his parents came to Israel from North Africa - and his sense of being an outsider in Silicon Valley. “Both my parents’ families emigrated from North Africa with nothing,” he wrote. “One of my grandfathers worked at the French subway, the other was an electrician. We were outsiders.”
For Bouaziz, Deel’s story is both a business and personal narrative. “All good things start small and shaky,” he wrote, closing the post with what could double as a manifesto for the post-hype startup era.
