HYDERABAD: No sooner had Hyderabad-based HR tech startup Darwinbox logged into the unicorn club than it has set its sights on the next big target – emerging as Asia’s numero uno human capital management platform by 2025.
Currently Darwinbox’s platform is third in Asia after ERP giants SAP and Oracle. “Our next milestone is becoming the no 1 HCM platform in Asia in the next 2-3 years and then we will look at other markets as well,” Darwinbox co-founder Jayant Paleti said. Darwinbox, which was set up in 2015 by Paleti along with Chaitanya Peddi and Rohit Chennamaneni, caters to some of Asia’s largest conglomerates including Adani, Mahindra, Vedanta, SBI General Insurance, Kotak, TVS, NSE, Aurobindo, Ramky as well as companies such as Bigbasket, Swiggy and Makemytrip. It has just raised $70 million in a growth stage funding round led by TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures and other existing investors that include Endiya Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, 3One4Capital, JGDEV and SCB 10X taking its total funding to over $110 million so far.
Endiya Partners MD Sateesh Andhra, who wrote Darwinbox’s first cheque when it was just a fledgling startup working out of a penthouse room, said: “When I first met Darwinbox six years ago, they were one of few Saas technology firms to start in Hyderabad.” Telangana IT & industries principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan termed Darwinbox’s journey as a landmark day for Saas ecosystem in Hyderabad, which has over 300 Saas players. Pointing out that this has busted serveral misconceptions about Hyderabad, he said: “There is a mistaken belief that Saas companies only work successfully out of Madras but that is not true. Example of Darwinbox and Zenoti and HighRadius show that there is enough going for Saas companies here because of presence of large companies like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Informatica,” he said.
