Darwinbox has raised $72 million in a funding round led by Netflix backer TCV, valuing the cloud-based HRtech startup at more than $1 billion, making it the fourth unicorn this year.
With the latest round of funding, the Hyderabad- and Singapore-based firm has raised a total of $110 million from investors, according to cofounder Jayant Paleti. Existing investors such as Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners, 3One4Capital, JGDEV, and SCB 10X participated in the round. Salesforce made its first bet in India last year when it invested in Darwinbox.
The lead investor, US-based TCV, is known for its bets on major US firms, including Airbnb and Netflix. It had recently backed Indian startups Dream11 and Razorpay.
Paleti said the company aims to double down on global expansion and accelerate its product development plans, after having grown 200% in the last one year. “We are looking to enter the US markets this year. It will be a super force multiplier, but could become a substantial contributor to revenue in the next three-four years,” he said, adding that despite the pandemic, Darwinbox grew significantly in Southeast Asia, while India has been a strong market for it.
Darwinbox enables businesses to manage their human resource needs digitally, such as hiring and onboarding, touchless attendance, and employee management. It collaborates with both new-age companies like MakeMyTrip and Swiggy and traditional companies like Adani Group.
The six-year-old startup gets a third of its revenue from Southeast Asia, while the Middle East contributes 6-7% and India the rest, according to Paleti. “The plan is to double our growth this year too and in the coming few years as well,” he said, while refusing to comment on the company’s annual recurring revenue. “We have taken away market share (from rivals). One-third of the 650 clients that we have are the ones where we went and replaced the existing one,” he said, referring to the growth in new revenue additions in India and Southeast Asia.
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