Sequoia leads $15 mn Series B in HR tech platform Darwinbox

Enterprise-focused human resources management (HRMS) platform Darwinbox has raised $15 million in Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

Existing investors Lightspeed India Partners, Endiya Partners and 3one4 Capital also participated in the round, according to a statement issued by the company. 

The Hyderabad-headquartered company will utilise the capital for expansion in Asia and product innovation, the statement added.

Darwinbox had raised $5 million across seed and Series A rounds and set up an office in Singapore earlier this year. 

Founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni, the company provides its cloud-based HR technology platform in a software as a service (SaaS) model. 

“We will invest heavily in further strengthening our platform, especially our analytical layer with AI and ML capabilities to aid decision making,” said co-founder Peddi in the statement. 

The platform offers automation of employee lifecycle including recruitment, onboarding, time and attendance, expense management, payroll, employee engagement, performance management and people analytics. 

In an interview with TechCircle earlier this year, Peddi had said the company will be adding other stacks such as travel, surveys and assessment. 

The company currently has over 200 clients in sectors like technology, conglomerate, pharma, healthcare, manufacturing, BFSI, consumer products, retail and others. Arvind, Adani, Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s, Swiggy, Paytm and Times Internet use Darwinbox’s HRMS platform. 

“Recruiting, retaining and upskilling talent is a top priority of every company today. The Darwinbox team combines world-class product sensibilities with a unique understanding of local nuances in HR in Asia to provide a compelling and delightful product to their customers, a sentiment we heard expressed by several HR leaders,” said Harshjit Sethi, principal, Sequoia in the statement.

Similar deals

In May, AI-based HR solutions platform Hyperhire raised $200,000 from Seoul-based early-stage investor Springcamp.

Infoedge, the parent of Naukri.com, acquired iimjobs.com for $11.58 million in May.

In February, cloud-based HRMS platform for small and medium businesses Qandle raised $1.2 million from Hong Kong-based Redwood Internet Ventures.