Hyderabad-based Darwinbox turns unicorn

Hyderabad-based technology startup Darwinbox has turned unicorn with the raising of $72 million funding in the latest round for global expansion.

With this round, the company's valuation will cross the $1 billion mark and take the total investment raised thus far by the company to over $110 million.

Darwinbox, an enterprise HR Tech company, has grown 200 per cent since the last fund raise a year ago.

Darwinbox, a Cloud-based HR technology platform which caters to an organisation's HR needs across the employee lifecycle, was founded by IIM/IIT/XLRI alumnus with work experience across leading firms like McKinsey, Google and EY.


The three co-founders, Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni, who hail from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, came together in November 2015 to build a world-class technology product.

The company got its first round of funding and support from Endiya Partners, a Hyderabad-based early-stage VC fund, which focuses on disruptive technology startups.

Darwinbox has 12 global offices with 700+ employees, and it is expecting to expand the headcount and its global presence rapidly.


"We started with a mission to build smarter and better technology for the modern-day employee," said Jayant Paleti, Co-founder, Darwinbox.

"In the last six years, we have grown from a three-member team to a 700-large organisation serving 650+ customers globally. A growth that wouldn't have been possible without the great work by all the employees who believed in the vision and joined the journey early on. As we scale further and aim for global leadership, we will be looking to add great talent and hire exponentially across all geographies," he said.

The latest funding round was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) along with participation from existing investors Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Lightspeed, Endiya Partners, and 3One4Capital.


The co-founders said the new funding will supercharge their global expansion plan by allowing the company to accelerate its platform innovation agenda, strengthen its product, engineering, and customer success teams along with scaling its go-to-market presence in South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East and North Africa.

The company is also setting up to launch in the US in 2022. - IANS