Microsoft invests in Darwinbox as part of HCM collaboration

Microsoft has made a strategic investment in Hyderabad-based HCM software provider Darwinbox as part of a new partnership between the firms on new product development and integrations across multiple Microsoft products and services.

The collaboration will bring more use of Darwinbox solutions into Teams, Office 365, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Viva, and Power BI, according to an announcement. For example, Darwinbox plans to expose HR transactions like attendance, leaves, access to policies, and recognitions in Teams. And they will add pre-built Power BI and Azure data lake integrations for analytics.

Darwinbox also foresees mapping their employee talent profiles with Microsoft systems to provide "better stack ranking, contextual and personalized onboarding, and intelligent learning recommendations via Viva and LinkedIn Learning."

Darwinbox is a venture-backed firm with investors including TCV, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Lightspeed, Endiya, and 3One4Capital. The company took on a Series-D $72 million round of funding led by TCV in January 2022.

Microsoft continues to invest in its own HCM-related capabililties, most notably its Viva suite. The company recently announced several new features in Viva Goals including new analytical tools for viewing objective and key results (OKR) adoption metrics, Power BI integration, integration with multiple Dynamics 365 applications, Confidential Access Policies through Azure AD, and improved integration with Microsoft Teams and Planner.