KKR-backed human resource and payroll services provider Darwinbox is drawing buyout interest even as it prepares for a potential public listing over the next couple of years. Existing investors Salesforce and Microsoft, along with US-based HR and payroll services provider ADP, have approached its founders and board with the intention to buy others out, three people with knowledge of the development said.
Darwinbox was valued at around $1 billion when it raised $140 million from KKR and Partners Group in March last year.
“All the options are on the table. That is the beauty of the current capital markets in India,” one of the persons cited above said on the condition of anonymity, as these discussions are private.
According to this person, from time to time, investors Salesforce and Microsoft have been expressing their desire to acquire the company. “High growth SaaS (software as a service) companies with domain expertise are seeing a lot of traction from global financial as well as strategic investors, and Darwinbox is no different,” the person said.
The company has so far raised $290 million across various funding rounds. Other investors on Darwinbox’s cap table include 3one4 Capital, Lightspeed, Sequoia, Salesforce, Microsoft and TCV.
A spokesperson for Darwinbox denied any talks for a stake sale, saying the company plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in the medium term and is on track to do so.
Mint's emailed queries to the spokespersons of Microsoft and Salesforce did not elicit any response. An ADP spokesperson declined to comment.
According to the second person in the know, while Salesforce and Microsoft want to add payroll services to their bouquet of products, companies such as ADP, who are already into the domain, want to deepen their expertise. “Darwinbox sits right in the middle of the aspirations of these companies,” said this person, adding that the company's board is yet to take a call on the offers it is getting.
The third person cited above said Darwinbox is now likely to be valued at around $1.8-2.0 billion.
Founded in 2015 by Jayant Paleti, Chennamaneni and Chaitanya Peddi, Darwinbox helps companies address their human resource needs across functions such as recruitment, onboarding, leaves, attendance, payroll and people analytics. It has over 1,000 clients, including Adani, Mahindra, JSW, Swiggy, Starbucks, Nivea, Kotak, Dixon Technologies, and Expocity Dubai, as per the company’s official website.
When it raised fresh capital last year, the company said it is looking at expanding across key global markets with a focus on North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), West Asia and Europe.
As per an October 2026 report by Entrackr, the company recorded a 50% jump in its operating revenue to â‚ą533.9 crore for the financial year 2025 (FY25) from â‚ą334 crore in FY24. The growth was driven by international expansion and deeper penetration in the existing markets. International markets contributed 63% of new sales, with the overall overseas revenue up 83% year-on-year, the report said.
Darwinbox had last year said that its US operations, launched in 2023, had started gaining meaningful traction, and the company is also seeing strong adoption in Southeast Asia and Middle East-North Africa regions.
India's SaaS companies have been growing at a fast clip, with its sub-segment HR SaaS witnessing tremendous adoption. Traxcn data shows there are about 3,000 HR SaaS firms in India, including the 324 funded ones that have collectively raised over $2.08 billion in venture capital and private equity funding. Of these, 101 are Series A+ funded, and two have achieved unicorn status. HR SaaS sector in India has seen 48 acquisitions and three IPOs, the data shows.
Sneha Shah is the editor for deals and startups at Mint. Starting off her career in India’s financial capital as a cub reporter for the Mid-day newspaper in the mid-2000s, she later moved on to decode balance sheets and follow the money trail for some of the leading pink publications in the country. She has been covering India’s deals ecosystem for nearly two decades now, closely tracking private- and public-market funding, startups, private equity, venture capital, and investment banking. From breaking some of the biggest deal stories of the past to doing some incisive deep-dives into the latest trends and turnarounds in the industry, she has witnessed the phenomenal growth and transformation of the country’s investment ecosystem from really close quarters. A graduate in journalism, she has worked with The Economic Times, Financial Chronicle, VCCircle and Mid-Day before starting her second stint at Mint in 2022. As a keen observer of India’s startups ecosystem, she aspires to write a book some day, chronicling some of the most inspiring stories the industry has seen so far in its remarkable journey.