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New Age HR Technology Platform Darwinbox Raises $4 Million Series A Funding from Lightspeed and Others
[June 20, 2017]

New Age HR Technology Platform Darwinbox Raises $4 Million Series A Funding from Lightspeed and Others


HYDERABAD, India, June 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Currently deployed to 50+ enterprises with 100,000+ employees, Darwinbox plans to use the funding for product innovation and market expansion 

Darwinbox , India's fastest growing enterprise Human Resource Management (HRMS) platform, has recently concluded a $4 million Series A funding. Lightspeed India Partners led the round along with participation from Darwinbox's existing investors Endiya Partners, Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital and Startupxseed Ventures. The company had raised its pre-series A round less than a year ago.

     (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/525234/Darwinbox_Founding_team.jpg )

Jayant Paleti, Co-founder of Darwinbox says, "The world's largest enterprises are increasingly thinking of HR platforms not just as systems of record but as systems of intelligence to propel their human resource agenda. There is a strong, ever increasing demand for a modern technology suite that will address these needs. With this capital raise, Darwinbox will continue to expand its core technology, product and go-to-market capability across India and internationally."

Darwinbox's cloud-based end-to-end HRMS platform automates HR processes across the entire employee lifecycle - managing recruitment, onboarding, core HR, time and attendance, expense management, payroll, employee engagement, performance management and people analytics. Their easy-to-use interface with high degree of configurability to suit local enterprise context has helped them acquire a large customer base within a short time.

Co-founder and Product Head of Darwinbox, Chaitanya Peddi says, "We have built an integrated, functionally deep and flexible application suite capable of handling organizations of all sizes and complexities. We will continue to invest in areas such as Big Data, machine learning coupled with latest research in HRM and psychology to maximize the value we offer to our clients while staying relevant and ahead of the competition."

In the last one year, Darwinbox has added 50+ companies and 100,000+ employees across verticals such as technology, pharma, healthcare and logistics. The company's marquee clients include Paytm, Nivea, Godrej CDPL, Delhivery, Sai Life Sciences, Swiggy and Hetero Pharma . Darwinbox operates on a SaaS model which allows companies to only pay as they use.

Speaking about Darwinbox, Suraj Saharan, Co-founder of Delhivery said, "The first thing that strikes you when you see Darwinbox is its simplicity in design; a refreshing change from the norm. We wanted a platform that can adapt to our frequently changing needs and Darwinbox has been the right choice. We were confident of the team's ability and their vision for the product. This funding is a testament that there are other independent groups who believe in them and want to partner with them in their journey."

Sohini Dutt, Director and Head Human Resources, Nivea said, "Refreshing to see a HRMS solution which is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. We wanted technology to work for us and make our processes more robust. The platform provided us the flexibility to build modules configurable to our internal requirements."



Darwinbox's product is targeted at mid to large sized enterprises, where it typically competes with the likes of SAP, Successfactors and Oracle Fusion. Darwinbox differentiates itself from competition through its easy-to-use interface, functional depth, faster implementation cycles and unique new-age features (e-Onboarding, Merit Planning, Continuous Feedback, Performance Journals, insightful analytics).

"At all sizes and in all industries, businesses succeed when their employees and managers are engaged for maximum productivity and potential. As a result, human capital management software is core to the success of every business," said Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed India Partners Advisors. "Darwinbox is leading the charge in taking human capital management beyond the HR department to all employees with a highly user-friendly and configurable user experience. We are thrilled to partner with Rohit, Chaitanya, Jayant and their team," he continued.


The founders Jayant Paleti, Rohit Chennamaneni, Chaitanya Peddi are IIT/IIM/XLRI alums and had worked across companies like Mckinsey, Google, EY and Deloitte before founding Darwinbox.

Sateesh Andra, MD, Endiya Partners says, "HR Technology is leading the SaaS and Cloud adoption, which has a steady growth of over 30% YoY, in India. In this rapidly growing market, Darwinbox expertly combines local customer knowledge with Global standards in Design, Engineering and Product Marketing which gives them an advantage in Indian SaaS business when competing with Global Players."

Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy said, "Moving to Darwinbox has made us wonder how we survived before it happened, the product is comprehensive, built with great attention to detail and is highly differentiated from most other HRMS products in the market."

Mohandas Pai investing via 3one4 Capital, says, "At a time when the fundamental principles of human resource management are rapidly evolving in India, the team at Darwinbox has leveraged platform-scale technologies and latest compliance frameworks to help their customers become more people-centric. By reimagining multiple workflows across HR, Darwinbox has unlocked several new strategies for tangible productivity improvements."

About Darwinbox

Darwinbox HR is a cloud-based integrated HR Technology platform which takes care of an organization's HR needs across the entire employee life cycle including Recruitment, e-onboarding, Core transactions (Leaves, Attendance, Directory), Payroll, Employee Movement, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, Merit Planning and People Analytics. Darwinbox engages more than 100,000+ employees on the platform across marquee clients like Paytm, Nivea, Godrej CDPL, Delhivery, Sai Life Sciences, Hetero Pharma, Voonik, Swiggy, Zoomcar etc. More at www.darwinbox.com.

About Lightspeed 

Lightspeed India Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in consumer and enterprise in India. Over the past decade, Lightspeed India has backed entrepreneurs in building market leading companies such as Indian Energy Exchange, Oyo Rooms, Byjus, Limeroad, Itz Cash, Innovaccer, Sharechat and Udaan. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed global team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally, including Snapchat, The Honest Company, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, GrubHub and TaskRabbit. More at http://www.lsip.com.

About Endiya Partners 

Endiya Partners is a premier, early-stage venture capital fund that invests in ideas with potential to change the world across technology, healthcare and consumer services sectors. Endiya believes in 'Co-Creation' - hand-holds Startups through Idea/Market Validation, Team Building, Business Model Refinement, Customer/Partner Acquisition and facilitates Follow-on Funding. The team at Endiya have strong domain expertise, coming from entrepreneurial backgrounds with global operating experience and investor capabilities. More at http://endiya.com/.

About Startupxseed Ventures 

StartupXseed is a strategic programme, for supporting the aspiring entrepreneurs with great ideas. StartupXseed is a unique programme combined with Seed fund, Strategic support, Market Access, Mentorship and closely supported by the Investor/advisory board of StartupXseed. Founded in June 2015 by Mr. B. V. Naidu along with Mr. Mohandas Pai (Aarin Capital), Mr. J. A. Chowdary, Mr. Ramakrishna V and supported by like-minded team from the Industry, Academia and Professionals, StartupXseed supports budding entrepreneurs both at the Strategic as well as Seed level.

About 3one4 Capital 

3one4 Capital is a venture capital fund based in Bangalore, India. The fund invests in technology, product, and platform companies that drive the expansion of markets, capture value with differentiated propositions, and contribute to the creation of new verticals. The fund is firmly committed to working with the best technology frameworks and entrepreneurs with deep domain and operational expertise to help early-stage companies hit ambitious targets. By connecting founding teams with the technology, resources, networks and community they need from initialization, the fund makes a lasting impact on the paths threaded to reach operational excellence and market leadership.

3one4 is currently engaged in the early stage of the spectrum, with a bias towards companies exploiting technology to create, grow, or dominate large markets in India. 3one4's investments include YourStory, ToneTag, Online Tyari, Darwinbox, Licious, Faircent, and Tracxn.

About Tracxn Labs 

Tracxn Labs is the investment arm of Tracxn which is a startup research platform powered by the largest team of Analysts tracking tens of thousands of startups across 100+ sectors globally.

Media Contact:
Gowthami Kanumuru
Marketing Head
Darwinbox Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd
[email protected]
+91-76749-71708

Kindly reach out to the media contact mentioned to setup any personal interviews with investors, founders, client company representatives for Darwinbox. Get a full version of this release at - https://darwinbox.com/media.php#press-releases


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