Wheeler-Deeler

ALEX BOUAZIZ’s HR company became the fastest-growing software startup in Silicon Valley history by promising to take the pain out of overseas hiring. But in its rush to a 12 billion valuation, regulators worry it may have been cutting the very compliance corners it’s supposedly maintaining.

- Kenrick Cai

It’s a sweltering September day in Washington, D.C., and Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz has a pressing question for his staffers, who are packed tightly into a nondescript gray sedan driving around Capitol Hill. “What is the one thing I really need to know about U.S. politics before meeting all these congressmen and congresswomen?” the 30-year-old Frenchman asks from the back seat. “I really don’t want to look too stupid.”

One executive is quick to offer up a truism, a minor variation on “money is everything.” But Bouaziz already knows that. Deel, his San Francisco–based startup, has been challenging the recondite world of international labor law compliance since launching in 2019, splashing around its $675 million pile of VC cash to help other companies handle legal and HR operations in 100-plus countries. In a land grab reminiscent of Uber and Lyft’s early city-by-city showdowns, Deel has been scrambling to grow as fast as possible—even if that means exploiting gray areas or allowing clients to bend a regulation or two.

“We are pushing borders in terms of global hiring,” Bouaziz says. “It’s not something people are used to.”

His software has been an instant hit. Thanks to the pandemic’s uprooting of office work worldwide, Deel’s revenue skyrocketed from $1.4 million in 2020 to $169 million last year. Sales should more than double this year, coming in around $350 million. In terms of annual recurring revenue, a popular metric in the software business, it was at one point the industry’s fastest growth ever. It has been “a bit of a fairy tale,” says Deel investor and former Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg.