Salesforce is making its first investment in an Indian company, a developer of human resources software that serves several of Asia’s largest tech startups.
The US giant’s venture arm is leading a $15 million financing round for Darwinbox, its first in India and its only investment in Asia outside of Japan. Headquartered in Hyderabad, the startup has already raised $35 million from backers including Lightspeed India, Sequoia Capital, and 3one4 Capital among others.
“Cloud adoption in Asia is growing at a monumental pace and the pandemic has only further amplified the importance of going digital,” said Alex Kayyal, partner and head, international, Salesforce Ventures.
“Darwinbox is delivering innovation for Asia’s leading enterprises and has emerged as a platform of choice,” he said.
Founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennamaneni, Darwinbox’s employee management platform has seen high traction in the enterprise segment. It competes with other established cloud platforms such as SAP and Oracle.
“More and more enterprises are abandoning legacy offerings in favor of our modern, agile human capital management platform that helps them stay ahead of change,” Paleti said. “We will work with Salesforce closely to maximize value for our customers, continue building out our product stack, and accelerate global expansion,” he said.
Darwinbox had the capital on its balance sheet and wasn’t actively looking for an investor, but the value that Salesforce adds to its journey is “monumental”, Paleti said.
The latest investment round follows the company’s Series B round, raised in September 2019 and led by Sequoia Capital India with participation from existing investors Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners, and 3one4 Capital, bringing the total investment in the company to $35 million. Darwinbox’s revenues have grown more than four-fold since the last round of funding.