Indian HR-tech unicorn Darwinbox said on Thursday it has secured $40 million from Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, in a mix of primary and secondary funding that the company said will accelerate its North American expansion and investment in agentic AI features.
The TVG cheque follows a larger $140 million round in March that added Partners Group and KKR to Darwinbox’s investor list, a transaction that fuelled the company’s international push and deepened its technology investments.
The fresh funding continues a busy funding year for the Hyderabad-born SaaS firm and helps monetize secondary liquidity for earlier investors.
Scale, Metrics & Product Priorities
Darwinbox said it serves more than 1,000 enterprises and supports millions of employees across markets, and has reported strong revenue growth (a 58% year-on-year rise to roughly ₹392–393 crore in FY24).
Management told press it has tripled North American revenue since entering that market in 2023 and is pushing agentic AI and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support as differentiators for its HCM platform.
The company said the proceeds will fund go-to-market expansion in North America, hiring, and further development of AI-driven capabilities within its human-capital management suite, part of a broader bet that integrated AI will be a competitive edge in HR software.
Darwinbox’s leadership has flagged ARR and international revenue targets tied to the new capital.
Investor View & Market Context
TVG/OTPP framed the investment as backing a fast-growing enterprise SaaS vendor that can displace legacy HR systems and scale globally.
The deal also follows growing institutional interest in Asia-origin SaaS companies that have demonstrated traction in the U.S. market. Darwinbox’s backers now include global names such as Microsoft, Salesforce Ventures, KKR, Partners Group, TCV and Lightspeed, a cap table that helped validate the $140m round earlier this year.
The $40m injection arrives as Darwinbox competes with global HCM players and newer HR-tech upstarts while trying to convert product momentum, notably AI capabilities and platform integrations, into scale in high-value enterprise accounts in North America.
For investors and customers, the round signals continued confidence that the company can expand its international footprint while funding secondary liquidity for earlier backers.
