Darwinbox to raise $150 million from KKR, Partners Group, others: Report

Darwinbox founders

Darwinbox, an enterprise HR technology platform, is set to raise nearly $120-$150 million in a funding round led by global private equity firms KKR and Partners Group, Mint reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The funding round, which is likely to value the company at around $950 million, will comprise a combination of primary and secondary fundraise. "While KKR is pumping in $50 million in the company, Partners Group will pool in $55 million," one of the sources told Mint.

The valuation is lower than the $1 billion valuation the company had in 2022, as it joined the unicorn club after raising $72 million in a round led by TCV.

Notably, the company's early investors including Peak XV, Lightspeed Ventures, StartupXseed and Endiya Partners are likely to exit either partly or in full through the secondary round, the report added.

Darwinbox was founded by Jayant Paleti, Rohit Chennamaneni and Chaitanya Peddi in 2015. The firm works in the human resources (HR) tech space, digitising functions such as attendance, payroll and employee onboarding.

Earlier in October last year, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform reported a 58 per cent on-year increase in total revenue for the financial year 2024 (FY24), driven primarily by its international expansion and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered products to its offerings, co-founder Jayant Paleti told Moneycontrol.

"We are a well-capitalised company. Our balance sheet is strong. And as a board, we took a call that the most important priority is to invest in some of these things, so that growth happens for a long period of time…Our net margin is negative but it is a conscious choice," Paleti had said.