Dubai-based Bayzat, which offers e-insurance and HR solutions, has won a $16 million Series B funding round to expand its enterprise HR and payroll resources. The round was led by Steve Cohen’s New York-headquartered Point72 Ventures, marking the influential VC’s first foray into the Middle Eastern tech market. Greyhound Capital, Tech Invest Com, Endeavor Catalyst and Elm also contributed to the round.
Bayzat, founded in 2013 by trio Brian Habibi, Talal Bayaa and Tarek Bayaa, has grown to become one of the Gulf region’s most successful outfits. Its platform which streamlines companies’ insurance policies and payrolls, has now won almost $30m in capital across five separate funding rounds.
Its clients include large-scale firms like Dubai’s DMCC and Deliveroo. And while it hasn’t yet garnered the heavyweight cash of Careem ($200m), Property Finder ($120m) or Bayut ($50m), the B2C brand is rising quickly to the top of the UAE’s tech pile. Monthly bookings have increased tenfold since the beginning of 2019, with this latest round set to supercharge that growth.
“The opportunity lies in enhancing the employee experience of 70 percent of SMEs in the UAE that don’t have HR automation in place,” said CEO and co-founder Talal Bayaa. “We’re incredibly excited to build technology-enabled experiences that meet the challenges faced by our customers.”