Darwinbox eyes expansion in MENA in new global growth strategy
Darwinbox, one of Asia’s fastest-growing HR tech platforms, has identified the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as a key growth market as part of its global expansion. This follows its recent USD72mn funding round that gives it a valuation that crosses the USD1bn mark. The new funding will supercharge Darwinbox’s plans by allowing the company to accelerate its platform innovation agenda, and scale its go-to-market presence in MENA, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
With its MENA regional office based in the Dubai, Darwinbox aims to invest aggressively and grow its team in the UAE. It is also staging the opening of its next GCC office in Saudi Arabia in the near future. Prioritizing product development for the region, Darwinbox will be launching its Arabic mobile app specifically tailored for MENA employees later this year.
Jayant Paleti, Co-founder at Darwinbox, shared, “Markets across the Middle East, especially in the UAE and KSA, have some of the world’s highest smartphone penetration rates and a growing young population that’s digital-savvy. The pandemic was a significant inflection point for Middle Eastern enterprises, with a majority adopting remote and hybrid work practices. At Darwinbox, we understand that people are at the core of every successful enterprise, and we will work closely with companies across the region to deliver a disruptive, modern, and intuitive experience to their workforce. With this funding, Darwinbox will accelerate its expansion across the MENA region, aiming for a 400 percent growth by the end of 2022.”
Darwinbox’s cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) platform caters to private and public sector HR needs across the entire employee lifecycle. The agile and intuitive HR technology platform helps enterprises realize better business outcomes by driving higher workforce productivity, better cost efficiency and smarter experiences for the modern-day employees. Darwinbox supports leading global brands like Nivea, Starbucks, Sephora, Zara, and AXA, along with Lulu Group, Aramex, and Mobily Infotech in the region.
The company has grown 200 percent since the last fundraise from Salesforce Ventures a year ago and has added more than 700,000 users on the platform during this period.
