Dubai-Based HR Startup Bayzat Scores a $5 Million Investment

Bayzat, a Dubai-based startup dubbed 'Your Friend with Benefits' has just announced it secured an additional $5 million in funding led by Silicon Badia - a new fund based in Amman and New York - alongside existing investors BECO Capital and Hamed Kanoo Co LLC. This additional funding brings Bayzat’s total funding in this Series A-1 round to over $8 million, after the company received its initial funding tranche earlier this year.

The startup, founded by Talal Bayaa and Brian Habibi in 2015, provides cloud-based insurance to over 18,000 customers in the region, and has developed a Bayzat Benefits, a host of different tools and automation prospects to alleviate mundane company administrative work, growing the company at a whopping 350 percent annual rate. 

“Bayzat’s dual strategy and core focus on building unique technology for this market is what attracted us to this business initially. Add a stellar management team and you have a recipe for success in a highly fragmented and inefficient industry," says Namek Zu'bi, Managing Partner at Silicon Badia.

Supplemented by the region’s switch to mandatory insurance and the mounting need for technology solutions for both insurance and business processes, the startup has succeeded in capturing a portion of a $30 billion premium market in the MENA region. With a firm foothold on the current insurance landscape, Bayzat has started bolstering its efforts to refining its burgeoning HR automation platform - Bayzat Benefits. “Talal and his team understood their customers pain points and have developed solutions, specifically for HR and employee benefits, that will transform the way SMEs manage and engage with their staff," says Amir Farha, Managing Partner at BECO Capital.

According to Talal Bayaa, CEO, Bayzat, the desire to allocate more resources towards developing its HR software is a decision born of experience. “The Middle East’s technology market is undeveloped, particularly in the form of SaaS. Companies are restricted to paper-driven archaic processes because they are not aware of any alternatives. Inefficient procedures like manual employee record management and payroll are a drain on businesses and their employees, and yet it continues to flourish here; one of the most forward-thinking countries on the planet!” 

OCR technology, which gives users the ability to extract important information (from passports of Emirates IDs) directly from scanned images, enables professionals from all departments to upload sensitive data quickly and easily directly onto Bayzat’s platform. Their well-received leave management feature invites employees and employers to submit time-off requests without cluttering email trains. With the ability to review, reject or accept requests from one centralized system, HR professionals have the capacity to accurately address time-off requests without cross referencing with other departments for information. Bayzat’s latest addition, payroll, looks to streamline a pivotal area for finance and HR management. Employees uploaded onto Bayzat Benefits’ will have their salary and commission information stored and configured automatically, allowing finance and HR professionals to allocate more time to nurturing their other responsibilities. Though Bayzat will continue to refine its leading insurance platform and offer support to the 18,000 lives insured through their site, the company will continue acceleration of new product developments for its HR software as its primary goal.

Photo: Forbes Middle East