[YS Exclusive] Darwinbox names CTO Vineet Singh as Co-founder

Global HR tech company Darwinboxhas elevated Vineet Singh, Chief Technology Officer, to the role of Co-founder.

In addition to expanding the company's global footprint and driving product innovation, Singh will lead efforts to enhance customer success initiatives by leveraging emerging technologies. 

“I don’t expect a lot to change with this elevation but will only further double down on our strategic priorities. We have always been known for our pace of innovation and will continue to focus on delivering value to our customers," Vineet Singh, Co-Founder, Darwinbox told YourStory. 

Singh, who spent the early years of his career as an engineer building products in both consumer and SaaS tech, joined Darwinbox in 2015.

“We will continue scaling into new markets, having recently launched in the UK and the US. Our main focus will be on driving product innovation and extending our reach, making Darwinbox a global platform,” he added. 

The Hyderabad-based firm has experienced a threefold growth over the past two years and is rapidly expanding into new markets like the US and UK. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Vineet as the fourth co-founder.He has been pivotal in realizing Darwinbox’s vision to build a global-standard enterprise tech product from India. He has scaled the platform into a full-fledged HCM suite with 15 modules in just 6 years which is faster than any other enterprise HR tech,” Chaitanya Peddi, Co-founder of Darwinbox, said. 

Last year, the company collaborated with Microsoftto develop solutions that integrate Darwinbox’s HCM platform with Microsoft’s ecosystem, focusing on co-innovating to enhance employee experience. 

In January 2023, the tech giant also invested Rs 32.6 crore (about $4 million) in Darwinbox's Series D round. 

Darwinbox has also introduced several industry-first innovations, including integration with Microsoft Teams and the first HR-specific large language model. 

“Our philosophy has always been about building a platform rather than just a product. We have been early adopters in launching HR-specific large language models (LLMs), and we’ll continue to invest heavily in this area. However, the key point is that we see AI evolving into a platform layer, integrated as a common inbuilt capability, rather than it being an individual offering. AI will also become a key lever to deliver agility and experience for the customers” Singh added. 

In 2022, the company had secured $72 million in a Series D funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures, along with existing investors such as Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, among others, and achieved unicorn status.

Founded in 2015, Darwinbox enhances talent management through employee experiences and cutting-edge AI technology. Its cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) software addresses HR needs throughout the entire employee lifecycle. 

“We use AI to make our process very effective and efficient. A lot of work is going on rapidly scaling across geographies. We currently operate in more than 10 countries with a physical presence, with our end users sitting in more than 100 countries, where we go deep and solve for every local nuance,” Chaitanya noted. 

In 2021, Darwinbox became the only HCM product from Asia to be featured in the Gartner Magic Quadrant on a global scale.

“We are one of the very, very few companies where structurally customer support for a SaaS company like us, sits in the engineering department. So we will be leveraging a lot of technology and AI to offer great support and ensure customers are eventually successful,” he added. 

Currently, the firm has over 900 enterprise customers and nearly three million employees as end-users across 130 countries. Darwinbox has been backed by global investors including TCV, Microsoft, Salesforce Ventures, Peak XV, Lightspeed, and Endiya Partners.