London-based Centuro Global has just secured €3.7 million (£3.3 million) for its SaaS solution that helps businesses scale globally.
Scaling globally is both an attractive and ambitious plan for many startups. It enables growing companies to tap into new markets, increase profitability and become global leaders. However, it’s not an easy process and comes with a number of challenges – the main one being international compliance.
Expanding to new geographical markets means becoming compliant and respecting regulations in tax, legal, immigration, payroll, HR and beyond.
Centuro Global was established to make that simple, offering a ‘global expansion-as-a-service’ solution. The London-based startup has now secured €3.7 million (£3.3 million) to grow.
The funding was led by Mercia. It comes as the startup also secures contracts with leading companies, exceeding sales targets and tripling the team headcount.
Zain Ali, co-founder: “We are thrilled to have secured this funding which will enable us to further develop our technology and accelerate our growth as we seek to establish ourselves as a leader in the global expansion space. We believe Centuro has the potential to transform the way companies approach international markets, unlocking new opportunities and growth potential.”
Founded in 2020, Centuro Global leverages AI to ensure a company’s global expansion is compliant across tax, immigration and entity setup from one easy-to-use platform.
The startup was launched by Asma Bashir and Zain Ali with a vision to help companies overcome challenges when entering new markets. The solution analyses and interprets data to provide businesses with insights that help leaders make informed decisions, avoiding expensive hourly rates and time delays through traditional services.
Zain Ali: “Global expansion is complex, with confusing local laws especially immigration, complicated taxes and hefty fines for those who fail to play by the rules.
“Centuro cuts through the complexity, eradicating the need for siloed, expensive and inefficient consultancy services. We’re disrupting the dominance of the larger players in the market, giving ambitious businesses a simple solution that saves them time and money, reduces compliance risks and helps them win in new markets and in the war for global talent.”
Currently, the platform, which leverages generative AI and local legal expertise, is offering help with entity set-up in over 150 countries.
Zain Ali: “We’re encouraging investors and clients to think of this as a dynamic new industry. It’s global expansion as a service; a new market we expect to grow rapidly alongside Employer of Record arrangements.”
This new funding will fuel Centuro’s own expansion efforts including further investment in its AI solution, onboarding more client success managers, and adding more clients convinced by the simplicity of the Centuro platform.
Adam Watts, Investment Manager at Mercia: “With the trend to ‘working from anywhere,’ more companies are finding themselves managing distributed teams and having to navigate complex legislation. Centuro’s ‘expansion as a service’ model helps businesses operating overseas to make informed decisions quickly. The company has grown revenues rapidly since launching its platform last year and we believe it has huge potential to establish itself as a category leader in this space.”
