Indian HR technology unicorn Darwinbox has raised $40 million in fresh funding led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP). The company said the capital will be used to accelerate its expansion in the United States and strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities.
The deal was announced in a company statement on BusinessWire and reported by The Economic Times. It follows a $140 million round in March 2025, led by Partners Group and funds managed by KKR, bringing Darwinbox’s total new capital raised this year to $180 million.
Founded in Hyderabad in 2015, Darwinbox operates a mobile-first human capital management (HCM) platform that covers the entire employee lifecycle, including payroll, workforce management, performance reviews, employee experience and people analytics.
The company said the latest funding will help it build scale in North America, where it has reported three-fold year-on-year growth since formally entering the market in 2022, according to Mint.
“HR tech, when done right, can unlock outsized value for every enterprise,” said Jayant Paleti, co-founder of Darwinbox, in comments released through BusinessWire. “We are building the next-gen HCM company: global by design, AI-first at the core, and relentlessly focused on customer outcomes.”
Agentic AI at the centre
Darwinbox has made artificial intelligence central to its technology roadmap. In 2025 it rolled out agentic AI features, including support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which enables enterprises to create and deploy autonomous HR agents within the platform.
In an interview with UNLEASH, Paleti said the company’s goal was to move beyond generic generative AI to “autonomous, cross-system HR agents that drive productivity, strengthen compliance and elevate the employee experience.”
The innovations place Darwinbox in direct competition with Workday, Oracle, Rippling and Deel, as global demand rises for AI-enabled HR systems.
Investor confidence
TVG, part of one of the world’s largest pension funds, said the investment reflected confidence in Darwinbox’s ability to compete internationally.
“We are pleased to partner with an exceptional team that has built and scaled Darwinbox into a leading HR technology company,” said Darius Vakil, director of TVG in India, quoted in the BusinessWire release. “We look forward to bringing our global network and expertise to support the company’s future growth.”
The Canadian investor joins a roster that already includes Microsoft, Salesforce Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Partners Group and KKR.
Darwinbox reached unicorn status in 2022 following a $72 million round led by TCV, which has previously backed companies such as Netflix and Spotify.
Darwinbox says its platform is used by more than 1,000 organisations, representing over 4 million employees across 130 countries. Clients include Starbucks, Nivea, AXA, Cigna, WeWork and T-Systems, according to BusinessWire.
The company is also the youngest HCM suite featured in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM Suites and has received the Customers’ Choice badge in Gartner Peer Insights reports for four consecutive years.