Deel

Deel was founded in 2019 by Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. It has remained private and was valued at $12 billion as of a 2022 funding round. Deel built a platform for global payroll and international contractor and employee hiring, allowing companies to hire workers in countries where they have no legal entity by acting as an Employer of Record (EOR).

Deel's primary product is a global HR and payroll platform. It addresses the legal and administrative complexity of employing people across different countries — handling local compliance, contracts, tax filings, and payment in local currencies. The main buyers are HR, finance, and legal teams at companies scaling internationally, ranging from startups to large enterprises. Deel sells primarily through a sales-led motion, with pricing tied to the number of workers managed on the platform. The EOR service charges a per-worker monthly fee, and the contractor management product operates on a separate pricing tier.

Deel's core offering is its Employer of Record service, through which Deel legally employs workers on behalf of client companies in countries where the client has no local entity. Alongside this, Deel offers contractor management tools, global payroll for companies that do have local entities, and immigration and visa support services. In 2022 Deel acquired Roots, an HR software company, to expand into workforce management. In 2023 Deel acquired Capbase to add equity management capabilities. Deel has also launched Deel HR, a free HRIS product, to compete more directly with broader HR platforms.

Deel competes directly with Remote (founded 2019), Rippling (founded 2016), and Papaya Global in the global payroll and EOR category. Oyster HR is another named competitor in the EOR segment. The global EOR and international payroll market grew rapidly after 2020 as remote work expanded the demand for cross-border hiring infrastructure. Deel and Remote in particular have been in direct competition and have publicly traded accusations of improper conduct, including a lawsuit filed by Rippling against Deel in 2024 alleging corporate espionage.