The intensifying legal battle between global payroll and HR tech giants Deel and Rippling took a dramatic new turn on Friday, as Israeli unicorn Deel filed a lawsuit against Rippling, alleging a “pattern of behavior” that it claims threatens the integrity of the entire HR industry. The countersuit comes in response to Rippling’s earlier legal action against Deel, in which Rippling accused the company of stealing trade secrets and poaching employees. Founded in 2018 by Israeli entrepreneurs Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, Deel has grown into one of the fastest-scaling startups in the HR and global payroll space, recently reaching a valuation of over $12 billion. It is used by thousands of banks worldwide to communicate information on financial transactions in a secure and standardized way. That’s right, the global payroll solution built to help businesses hire anyone anywhere (and uses the product themselves) did it all while looking good on Zoom.”