Alex Bouaziz

Origins and early life

Alex Bouaziz grew up in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, the eldest of four, in a family whose grandparents had come from Tunisia on his mother's side and Algeria on his father's, and who 'immigrated to France with nothing, like many North African Jews'. Of that childhood he says: 'It may not be the most luxurious neighbourhood in Paris, but it was a fairly Jewish neighbourhood and a good environment to grow up in' — and 'in Paris, you grow up constantly looking back, especially as a Jewish child'.

Work and career

He finished school at sixteen, in 2009, moved alone to Israel at seventeen and read civil and environmental engineering at the Technion, in English, then took a master's at MIT, where he met Shuo Wang. In 2019 the two founded Deel with Ofer Simon: a platform that hires, pays and manages workers across borders, acting as employer of record and carrying the compliance in each country. It entered Y Combinator that year, became a unicorn in 2021, and in October 2025 raised 300 million dollars at a valuation of 17.3 billion; it employs some 7,500 people in 120 countries and serves more than 40,000 companies.

His father Philippe, founder of the French software firm Prodware, is Deel's chief strategy officer, and three of his sisters work there. He lives between Paris, Israel and Dubai. In May 2026, after Arsenal announced Deel as its sleeve sponsor, antisemitic graffiti reading 'No Deel ZOG' appeared near the Emirates Stadium. The company is also in litigation with its rival Rippling, which accused it of corporate espionage in March 2025; Deel denies wrongdoing and has countersued, and the United States Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into the allegations in January 2026. Nothing is settled.