How Axelera AI powers its rapid growth with Remote

At a glance

With an ambitious vision and a highly specialised team across 20 countries, Axelera AI faced the challenge of efficiently managing international hires and contractors in compliance with local regulations. Through Remote’s Employer of Record (EOR) and Contractor Management (CM) solutions, Axelera AI onboarded top-tier talent within days instead of weeks, enhancing hiring speed, and operational control.

Explore how Remote has fueled Axelera AI’s growth by streamlining HR processes, ensuring compliance, and fostering seamless collaboration, equipping Axelera AI with the agility to drive its AI technology innovations forward.

• HQ: Netherlands

• Founded: 2021

• Funding: Series B

• Industry: AI

• Hiring: Globally

• Products: EOR & CM

Introduction

Axelera AI is a leading force in the AI sector, specialising in advanced AI hardware acceleration technology for AI inference tasks, including computer vision and generative AI. Its flagship product, the Metis™ AI platform, offers unparalleled performance and power efficiency in Edge AI inference at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.

As an innovator in Gen AI and computer vision, Axelera AI requires the knowledge, support, and expertise of the world’s foremost AI experts — wherever they are based.

For Meghna Singh, the company’s VP of People, the opportunity in this space is huge. “We are a young, ambitious company and we believe our technology is better than anything else on the market,” she says. “But if we’re to translate that into the best platform for our customers, we need the best talent — irrespective of location.”

Scaling faster than competitors

Headquartered in the AI Innovation Center of the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Axelera AI brings together a global team of scientific advisors, engineers, researchers, developers, and business experts, where their core focus is to accelerate computer vision and natural language processing AI workloads. For Meghna Singh, the company’s VP of People, the opportunity in this space is huge.

“We are a young, ambitious company and we believe our technology is better than anything else on the market. If we’re to translate that into the best platform for our customers, we need the best talent — irrespective of location.”

Although Axelera AI has offices in multiple European countries, the flexibility to hire globally — at speed — is key. Remote’s employer of record (EOR) and Contractor Management solutions enable the company to onboard new talent in a matter of days, with Meghna stating that around 20% of Axelera AI’s workforce is hired with the help of Remote.

“Remote is a great partner to help us scale at speed. Once we find the right people, we’re not constrained by the time it takes setting up a new entity. It enables us to secure the people we need to bring our product to market faster than our competitors.”

During onboarding, Remote’s platform automates manual tasks and hiring managers have full visibility of the process. Then, once onboarding is complete, managers can approve time off and expense requests, process job description and compensation changes, and support relocation requests.

“We’re a small HR team and we absolutely love the speed and efficiency that we have with Remote,” says Meghna. “We love the platform itself, as well as the partnership we have with our account team. They’re fast, proactive, and always solution-oriented.”

Inspiring investor confidence

The partnership also helps to support investor confidence, which is crucial for a Series B-funded company.

“Investors 100% look for talent density,” says Meghna. “They also want to know that we’re fully compliant, which Remote helps ensure is accomplished.”

This robust, compliance-focused culture also minimises the risk of legal complications and reputational harm in the future.”

Remote fully owns all its legal entities around the globe, and its in-country labour law experts ensure everything is locally compliant. Crucially, for a trailblazer like Axelera AI, Remote’s ironclad intellectual property (IP) protection also ensures that the company always retains full ownership of its IP and invention rights.

“We highly recommend partnering with Remote. You will sleep better at night knowing you won't have to worry about compliance.”

“Remote undoubtedly makes our lives easier,” says Meghna. “Although we hire globally, we don’t have to worry about all the intricacies of each country’s labour laws. Remote supports us, giving us greater peace of mind.”

Leveraging contractor expertise

Axelera AI also uses Remote’s Contractor Management platform to manage its international contractors. This solution significantly streamlines the invoicing process (including one-click payments in multiple currencies), and makes it quick and easy to draft localised contractor agreements.

“We have a number of independent contractors based in the EU,” Meghna explains. “Having everything on one platform simplifies our processes, and we know we are in full compliance with local labour laws.”

Ensuring seamless collaboration

The Axelera AI team is made up of 30 nationalities across 20 countries, and successful collaboration is vital for the business.

“Our people are truly the driving force behind our mission and vision,” says Meghna. “We are a multicultural team and that definitely makes us richer in terms of our company culture and the platform we’re building.”

Karolina Krawczyk, the company’s People Operations Specialist, agrees.

“It’s amazing that we have so many different nationalities within our organisation and are operational in numerous countries that we are working in,” she says. “Regardless of who is employed with us, directly or through Remote, we are one team working toward the same goal.”

This sense of partnership is also evident between Axelera AI’s people team and Remote’s account and customer success teams. “I love the collaboration with Remote,” adds Camille Thorailler, People and Culture Manager at Axelera AI. “The response times for my questions are really fast; it’s a relationship we really trust.”

“Every small HR team that wants to hire globally should partner with Remote. ​​We love the solution-oriented mindset combined with their ability to take action quickly.”

Preparing for the future

Although the company’s current workforce is predominantly European, it plans to expand further into global markets — such as the US — in the near future.

“We have recently announced a successful Series B funding round,” Meghna says. “This means a lot of acceleration, and we know Remote will be on hand to help support us.”

In the meantime, Meghna is proud of what Axelera AI has already achieved, and is delighted with Remote’s impact.

“Being able to hire globally and offer great benefits through Remote is a big value proposition for us,” she concludes. “We are a truly multicultural company and I’m looking forward to continuing on this trajectory of growing our incredible team and company.”

“We want a trusted global partner; one who does everything by the book. Remote gives us that confidence.”

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