Salesforce’s venture arm leads $15m round for Indian HR tech firm Darwinbox

Southeast Asian HR tech firm Darwinbox said it has raised US$15 million in strategic investment from a round led by Salesforce Ventures, the venture arm of customer relationship management major Salesforce.

The round was joined by Darwinbox’s existing investors Sequoia and Lightspeed, according to a statement. The latest investment has taken the company’s total funding to US$35 million, Jayant Paleti, co-founder of Darwinbox, told Tech in Asia.

From left: Darwinbox founders Rohit Chennamaneni, Jayant Paleti, and Chaitanya Peddi / Photo credit: Darwinbox

Founded in 2015, Darwinbox provides a software-as-a-service tech platform for human resources teams worldwide. Its cloud-based technology helps companies with tasks such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll, and performance management, among others.

The investment comes after the India-headquartered startup experienced a 300% growth since its last funding round in 2019, it claimed. Darwinbox said it saw a massive surge in adoption during the Covid-19 pandemic, with more companies looking for digital solutions.

“More and more enterprises are abandoning legacy solutions in favor of our modern and agile HCM (human capital management) platform that helps them stay ahead of change, ” said Paleti in a statement.

The company plans to use the fresh funding to bankroll its Southeast Asian expansion plans, onboard new partners, further develop its product, and hire more talent, the exec added.

See Also: India’s Sequoia-backed HR software startup explains why it’s expanding to Southeast Asia

“We strongly believe that Asia, with its millennial-heavy population and high affinity for mobile-first products, has requirements that western products are unable to serve,” Lightspeed India partner Dev Khare shared.

Darwinbox currently serves over 500 global companies with more than 1 million employees spread across 60 countries. These include regional firms such as the JG Summit Group, Zalora, Zilingo, and Tokopedia, as well as international brands Nivea, Tokio, Puma, Axa, and WeWork.