ALEX BOUAZIZ

Age: 27 • Cofounder, Deel

Deel automates one of the most boring aspects of business: compliance. After founding the Tel Aviv–based venture fund Sarona Ventures in 2016, France-born Bouaziz began hiring tech workers in places like Ukraine for his startups to keep costs low, only to realize how confusing and timeconsuming it was to pay them. To fix the problem, Deel has raised nearly $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others to automate the banal processes of creating employment contracts, managing wage payments and verifying workers’ identities to comply with international financial regulations. The MIT grad’s San Francisco–based startup works with hundreds of tax advisors across 150 countries to ensure its 600 clients are compliant with international labor laws. “There’s a huge amount of companies figuring out how to hire remotely because of Covid,” Bouaziz says. With his software, “You can hire someone in a couple clicks.”

JUDGES: Orlando Bravo, cofounder, Thoma Bravo; Henrique Dubugras, cofounder, Brex (Under 30 Class of 2019); Michael Novogratz, founder, Galaxy Digital; Cathie Wood, founder, Ark Investment Management