Darwinbox, which helps Adani Group with its HR needs, is the third unicorn of 2022

• Darwinbox has raised $72 million in a Series D round led by TCV.
• Salesforce and Sequoia India have participated in the round too.
• The company plans to expand into international markets, starting from the US.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Darwinbox, which helps organisations manage their human resources (HR) needs, is the third unicorn of 2022. A unicorn, in startup parlance, is a company valued at or over $1 billion.

The HR Tech platform has raised $72 million in a Series D funding round led by Netflix-backer Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners, 3One4 Capital, JGDEV and SCD 10X participated in the round.

Though Darwinbox has not revealed their valuation, the company has confirmed that it has crossed over a billion dollars. The company has raised close to $200 million since its inception six years ago.

The company was founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni. It offers automation of employee lifecycle including recruitment, onboarding, attendance, expense management, payroll, employee engagement, performance management and people analytics.

It counts MakeMyTrip, Swiggy and Adani Group firms as its clients.

Darwinbox plans to use this capital to double down on its global expansion and further accelerate its product development plans. The company will start its global expansion by entering the US market, which could be a substantial contributor to the company’s revenue in three-four years.

Fractal and LeadSchool were the other two startups that turned into a unicorn this year. Mamaearth too had officially announced its unicorn funding this year, but the development was already reported based on regulatory filings by the end of 2021.

The year 2021 was the best one for Indian startups as four startups turned a unicorn every month. Overall, 44 startups were valued over $1 billion last year. Piyush Goyal, the minister of industry and commerce, hopes that India will create 75 unicorns in 2022.

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