Darwinbox Raises $140 Million from Partners Group and KKR

‍From Early Backing to Global Scale - 3one4 Capital Celebrates an Extraordinary Journey

We're delighted to share that Darwinbox, Asia’s largest HR tech platform, has secured $140 million from Partners Group and KKR. This round validates Darwinbox’s robust fundamentals, rapid growth, and the trust it has earned from a global clientele of over 1,000 enterprises across 120+ countries.

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𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟯𝗼𝗻𝗲𝟰 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹  🎯

As one of the first institutional investors, 3one4 Capital has been partnered with Darwinbox from Day One. Since our seed-stage investment in 2016, when the company was just getting started, we’ve had a tandem seat to its meteoric rise as it consistently innovates to win the most valuable enterprise software real estate against legacy incumbents.

"We first met Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni when they were discussing their seed raise in early 2016. 3one4 Capital was launching its first fund, and we had just confirmed our initial set of research-backed theses within our areas of interest — SaaS being a central theme.

Anurag Ramdasan and I were fresh out of our first global-GTM SaaS operating roles, coincidentally also in the HR segment. It didn’t take us long to see that these founders knew exactly what they were talking about — they had identified the same gaps in global Human Capital Management (HCM) that we had.

For Darwinbox to succeed, we knew it had to be a giant killer — an incumbent displacer with a product that was 10x better, built on a resilient and scalable system-of-record architecture, cloud and mobile-first. If that wasn’t daunting enough, we also had to prove all of this in the Indian enterprise environment — winning large Indian clients first before scaling globally. Not for the fainthearted. But we knew this was possible and that the timing was right to build for this opportunity.

We weren’t surprised that the seed round had minimal VC interest. What truly shocked us was when Jayant and Rohit told us that Chaitanya Peddi had already built almost all of this out — even before the seed round!

It didn’t take us long to decide to invest and get started. We partnered with this team to help deliver what seemed impossible. From showing up in board meetings of some of India’s largest public companies to vouch for the product and its roadmap — to now celebrating one of the largest SaaS rounds in recent memory, working with this team has been the journey of a lifetime."
— Pranav Pai, Founding Partner & CIO, 3one4 Capital

Over the years, we've had the pleasure of partnering with Jayant Paleti, Chaitanya Peddi, and Rohit Chennamaneni to transform their bold vision into a category-defining SaaS leader that is now used by some of the giants - including Adidas, Starbucks, SBI, Kotak, Tata, TVS, and Mahindra.

Today, Darwinbox boasts a world-class cap-table, featuring 3one4 Capital, TCV, Microsoft, Salesforce Ventures, Peak XV (FKA Sequoia India), and Lightspeed - a testament to its global impact and persistent execution.

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𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻: 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅'𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻  🥇

• +100% CAGR revenue growth over 7 years, driven by global expansion and prioritised R&D
• 110% Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - high customer loyalty and continued product adoption
• 3 million+ employees managed across 1,000+ enterprises in 120 countries
• Distinctive technological edge and proven ability as a system of record to land high ACV contracts that support aggressive upsell and cross-sell = market-leading NRR and minimised churn
• 87% growth in international revenue, now contributing 50%+ of new ARR
• Displaced incumbent systems +550 times within enterprise clients
• One of the fastest Indian SaaS startups to reach Unicorn status
• On track to hit $100M ARR this year

Darwinbox was also rated #1 customers’ choice on Gartner's Peer Insights. It scored 4.7 out of 5 on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, a significantly higher rating than legacy Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions. It was also the most recommended HCM solution, with 96% of customers advocating it to their peers – the highest among all global HR tech solutions.

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The People OS: Built for Agility, Powered by AI

The platform’s AI-native People OS, designed to seamlessly manage diverse teams across geographies and roles. By integrating Generative AI and voice-enabled automation, it shifts HR from reactive to proactive, helping organisations anticipate challenges, optimise talent development, and drive continuous improvement.

• Generative AI for Smarter HR – Predicts workforce needs, enhances decision-making, and fosters agile talent management.
• "Darwin" – AI-Powered Voicebot – Simplifies daily HR tasks with voice-based inputs, cutting response times for leave requests, feedback, and scheduling.
• Multi-Country Payroll – Ensures seamless, compliant payroll processing across global teams.
• One Universal Identity – Unifies workforce data for full-time, contract, and gig workers.
• Consumer-Grade, Enterprise-Strong – Delivers intuitive UX with enterprise-level security and compliance.
• Beyond "Hire to Retire" – Adapts to every employee milestone, from promotions to global transitions.
• AI-Native, Modular, and Scalable – No-code integrations that flex with evolving business needs.

The platform’s investment in R&D - including Generative AI and a new digital payroll framework - has fueled product advancements and high customer retention (NRR at 110%).

The newly acquired funds are earmarked for enhancing product development and expanding Darwinbox's global footprint across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, the UK and the US.

The HR tech market is projected to grow from $23.32 billion in 2021 to $38.36 billion by 2030, and Darwinbox is placed perfectly to capture a significant share of this rapidly expanding industry.

At 3one4 Capital, we invested in and helped deliver on the potential for an India-built SaaS product company to redefine enterprise HR tech globally. Darwinbox’s phenomenal growth is no accident - it is a true testament to an incredible team that has demonstrated relentless confidence, pushed boundaries, and a never-settle-for-the-status-quo attitude.

Darwinbox is now a scale example of the terrific SaaS product innovation being built in India for the world! At 3one4 Capital, we are delighted to continue working with the Darwinbox team as they join other Indian SaaS leaders globally!

As Darwinbox continues to push the boundaries of what's possible, we feel a profound sense of joy and the quiet satisfaction of knowing we recognised greatness before it took flight.

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