Darwinbox, the HR upstart from India, raises $140M to take on Deel and Rippling

Darwinbox, an Indian startup building a SaaS platform for hiring, onboarding and employee administration, has raised $140 million to take on the likes of Rippling and Deel as it seeks to expand internationally, especially in the U.S. The funding is being co-led by KKR and Partners Group, and is a mix of primary and secondary share sales, with several unnamed investors selling parts of their stakes. Darwinbox’s investor list includes the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, Sequoia, TCV, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and Lightspeed. Darwinbox, which has now raised around $270 million in total, did not respond to questions on its valuation in this latest round except to confirm it is an up-round. When the news leaked out last week in the local press, the company’s price tag was pegged at $950 million. In 2022, Darwinbox raised funding at a valuation of over $1 billion. For some context, two of the bigger startups in the HR-tech space — Deel and Rippling — are both valued around $12 bil ... Read full article.