Darwinbox linesup Rs 400 cr for expansion

Hyderabad: Human resources (HR) tech software service provider Darwinbox is planning to invest around Rs 400 crore in next two years for expansion, new products and R&D (research and development). The Hyderabad-based unicorn startup aims to expand its operations in US, South East Asia and Middle-East countries, along with strengthening its presence in already existing locations.

"In the overall investment, almost 70 per cent will go into the R&D of our software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, which is primarily in Hyderabad. We will be spending the rest of the money to set up offices abroad, in countries like Japan and Australia. To set up an office in each country, it may require about Rs 20-30 crore," Chaitanya Peddi, Cofounder and Product Head of Darwinbox, told Bizz Buzz.

"Our India business has reached break even and it is expected to achieve profitability by next fiscal. We have so far raised $125 million (Rs 1,000 crore) from various investors, including TCV, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Lightspeed and Endiya Partners. The company's valuation has crossed $1 billion by January 2022 and joined the club of unicorns," he informed.

Darwinbox's another co-founder Rohit Chennamaneni said, "Globally, SaaS market size is at $1 trillion (Rs 8 lakh crore), while HR SaaS is a $30-billion (Rs 2.4 lakh crore) opportunity. Currently, Darwinbox is the third largest HR tech player in India having a market share of 25-30 per cent of revenue coming from HR tech deals. We are aiming to go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the coming three years."

He spoke to media in the sidelines of the inauguration of the company's global headquarters in Hyderabad with a seating capacity of 1,000 spanning 75,000 sft to empower the brand's consistent business growth globally while enabling it to further tap into local talent. It has about 700 employees in Hyderabad and will add another 300 in the next six months, he informed.

Rohit further said, "Presently, we serve 700 clients and 2 crore users from large conglomerates, fast-growing technology giants, and leading global brands like JSW, Adani, Vedanta, Mahindra, Kotak, NSE, Ujjivan, Makemytrip, Swiggy, Nivea, Starbucks, and Dominos. We want to work with more mid and large companies having about 2,000 employees."