RemotePass raises $17.4m Series B and claims early profitability in global employment and payroll

At a glance:

• RemotePass, a Dubai-founded global employment and payroll platform, raised $17.4m in Series B led by EBRD Venture Capital, with 500 Global joining as a new strategic investor.
• The company reached profitability in early 2025 and claims 35,000-plus workers and $800m-plus in cross-border payroll facilitated across 150-plus countries.
• The round accelerates growth of RemotePass's fintech layer, including its recently launched SpendCards for corporate expense management, positioning the platform as an end-to-end alternative to incumbents like Deel, Remote, Rippling, and Velocity Global.

A profitable payroll platform breaks from the venture playbook

RemotePass co-founded by Kamal Reggad and Karim Nadi has closed a $17.4m Series B that marks a notable departure from the unit-economics playbook that dominates the global employment and payroll category. The round was led by EBRD Venture Capital, the venture arm of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with 500 Global coming in as a new strategic investor. Returning backers include Oraseya Capital, 212 VC, Access Bridge Ventures, and Khwarizmi Ventures. The round comes roughly 14 months after RemotePass's $5.5m Series A in March 2024, led by 212 VC, bringing total funding to about $23m by the company's accounting.

The structural detail that stands out in the announcement is the profitability claim. RemotePass says it reached profitability in early 2025 and chose to reinvest its operating-leverage runway into expansion rather than banking the margin. That is a sharp contrast with the category's usual trajectory. Venture-scale platforms such as Deel, Remote, Rippling, and Velocity Global operate on negative unit economics, underwritten by repeated late-stage funding rounds. RemotePass is positioning itself as the discipline-led entrant that can grow without perpetual capital infusions.

Chief executive Kamal Reggad framed the round in operational terms: "We have the product, the traction, and now the partners to expand properly. Hiring is just the entry point. What companies actually need is a platform that supports their teams end-to-end, including the financial services that make distributed work function."

What RemotePass actually sells

The platform's core offering spans Employer of Record (EOR) services, contractor management, cross-border payroll, and compliance across more than 150 countries. On top of that, a fintech layer gives workers USD accounts, global cards, and health insurance. Named customers include Logitech, Tata Group, InDrive, and Careem. The company's own published figures put it at 35,000-plus workers on the platform and $800m-plus in cross-border payroll facilitated to date.

The product expansion driving growth is the fintech layer. In late 2025, RemotePass launched SpendCards, embedding corporate expense cards into the same platform that runs payroll. Expense management has been the operational layer that cross-border HR incumbents have struggled with the most. Finance teams running distributed workforces have historically had to stitch together payroll providers, expense-card issuers, and reimbursement systems. RemotePass's bet is that integrating those three into one platform is itself the differentiation.

The company's thesis is one of category convergence. Global employment and embedded fintech, on Reggad's read, are now the same business. RemotePass is structuring its growth and fundraising around that combined proposition rather than pitching payroll alone.

Investor perspective and the emerging-market angle

EBRD Venture Capital's mandate spans Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Principal Amine Chabane framed RemotePass as "building a leading platform from an emerging market, with the product depth and commercial momentum to compete in Europe and the US." 500 Global managing partner Amjad Ahmad added that "the emerging market depth, embedded fintech layer, and early AI investment create structural advantages that are hard to replicate."

That emerging-market framing is consistent with the wider regional fintech cycle. Dubai has become an increasingly defended fintech hub over the past three years, with the UAE hosting the majority of the region's most-funded startups. The city itself positions as a launchpad for emerging-market-founded businesses scaling globally. RemotePass is the workforce-and-fintech variant of that thesis.

The MENA-anchored positioning also points to a competitive gap. Deel, RemotePass's largest competitor, was last reported to be managing in-house payroll teams in over 130 countries and serving 35,000-plus customers. RemotePass's claim is that incumbents have underserved cross-border employment cases involving emerging-market entities, banking infrastructure, and compliance complexity.

The tightening labour market backdrop

The broader labour-market context is tightening, and RemotePass's pitch sits inside that tension. Standard Chartered told investors on Tuesday that the bank would cut more than 15% of its back-office roles by 2030, in part by replacing what its CEO called "lower-value human capital" with AI. Multiverse's $70m round earlier this month was framed around the upskilling-versus-replacing trade. RemotePass's argument is that it sits inside that intersection: companies need platforms that manage distributed workforces while also embedding the financial services those workers depend on.

What happens next

RemotePass has not disclosed its post-money valuation, run-rate revenue, or the geographic split of planned commercial expansion. The next twelve months of new-customer logo announcements will determine whether the Europe-US push lands at scale or whether the company remains an MENA-anchored player with international optionality. The SpendCards launch and the fintech layer integration are the near-term growth levers, while the Series B capital will fund hiring and commercial expansion into new regions. Investors will be watching whether the disciplined, profitable growth model can compete with better-capitalised incumbents as the global distributed-workforce market matures.

Key players and funding summary

• EBRD Venture Capital – venture arm of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; led the $17.4m Series B.
• 500 Global – new strategic investor in the round.
• 212 VC – led the $5.5m Series A in March 2024; returning backer.
• Oraseya Capital, Access Bridge Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures – returning investors.
• Deel – largest competitor, managing payroll in over 130 countries with 35,000-plus customers.
• Logitech, Tata Group, InDrive, Careem – named customers on the RemotePass platform.

RemotePass is betting that integrating payroll, contractor management, cross-border compliance, and embedded fintech into a single platform — while maintaining profitability — gives it a defensible position as the global employment category consolidates. The next twelve months will test whether that thesis holds at scale.