When Darwinbox launched in 2015, they weren’t just starting a company—they were entering a combat zone. Enterprise giants like SAP and Oracle dominated the HR software space. Taking on such big-name brands was a real-life David versus Goliath story, with the odds stacked heavily against them.
Luckily, the team behind Darwinbox had a clear vision. They weren’t just building any HR platform, but one uniquely designed with the employee in mind. Their software was adaptable, versatile, and ready for both local and global operations. As a company that targeted large enterprises from day one, they had an ace up their sleeve: A strategic partnership with Microsoft that helped them innovate quickly and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of work.
Darwinbox’s big breakthrough came in India’s bustling startup scene, where speed and innovation were valued more than your name or pedigree. New tech and e-commerce businesses loved Darwinbox’s fresh approach, and the company began to scale rapidly. It wasn’t long before they expanded into Southeast Asia, onboarding major enterprise clients in five countries, followed by a successful push into the Middle East and, most recently, North America where the company has gained exceptional momentum.
With each market they entered, their success snowballed. In less than seven years, Darwinbox is an international unicorn, valued at over $1B, with a rapidly growing customer base. According to Shantanu Kundu, US GTM Marketing Manager, the company continues to ride this wave of momentum.
“We consistently grow at 3X or more every year,” he says. “Our ability to build fast and adapt quickly to market demands sets us apart.”
But while the company’s growth looks unstoppable now, Darwinbox has overcome a few critical challenges to reach here!
One of the main tribulations early on was disconnected data and operations. Without a clear view of their data, they were essentially flying in the dark. Marketing, sales, and customer success teams worked in silos, with no unified system to tie everything together. This made it incredibly tough to prioritize leads, optimize campaigns, and effectively scale their operations.
Shantanu recalls the challenge. “We didn’t have a single source of truth, so everyone was running around trying to achieve the same goal, but without enough coordination.” Soumil Kar, Associate Director & Global Head - Sales Development at Darwinbox, remembers, “We didn't have a view of what the marketing team was doing and the progress they made.”
Without a centralized CRM, Darwinbox couldn’t effectively track engagement with prospects, or optimize their lead-to-conversion pipeline. And without the right insights to enable their go-to-market teams, they couldn’t measure the ROI of their marketing programs. It became clear that to hit their ambitious goals, Darwinbox needed to centralize everything under one roof—and one lens.
Determined to keep their growth on track, Darwinbox discovered HubSpot. HubSpot’s Smart CRM platform combined Darwinbox’s sales, marketing, and reporting operations into one platform, eliminating the complexity and high costs of running multiple disjointed tools.
Choosing the HubSpot for Startups program, they gained the resources and tools to build a strong foundation for the business and accelerate global expansion. The pricing offered by HubSpot for Startups also made it commercially viable for the small but rapidly-growing company. With 24/7 support and an intuitive interface, the team quickly adopted the platform. The transition was smooth, and the benefits were immediate.
Shantanu explained: “HubSpot for Startups helped us accelerate our journey because it allowed us to leverage HubSpot’s solutions to its best and expand into new markets with confidence.”
One of Darwinbox’s most significant early achievements was the unification of previously siloed data. This breakthrough felt like stepping into the light, providing them with a cohesive view and clear narrative of every stage of the customer lifecycle, visible and accessible across all their teams.
At the same time, Marketing Hub became a central part of their strategy, allowing them to create and scale subdomains, improving their SEO and organic traffic. They also moved their landing pages to HubSpot, gaining crucial insights that significantly improved campaign effectiveness.
Darwinbox’s planning and forecasting capabilities also soared. With improved lifecycle and stage-based reporting, Darwinbox creates robust annual operating plans and strategically scales projects based on performance metrics.
“We now have the data and visibility to plan more effectively,” said Shantanu. “From market expansions to tracking churn, everything flows through HubSpot, giving us the insights we need to scale smarter.”
Fast forward to today, and Darwinbox has deeply integrated HubSpot into its operations. From SEO and automated email marketing to reporting and data analysis, HubSpot is the backbone of their sales, marketing, and growth strategies. HubSpot surfaces the right insights so Darwinbox’s sales and marketing teams can make better decisions.
Image from HubSpot product page and for demonstration purposes only.
Shantanu highlights a 25% improvement in operational efficiency thanks to centralizing tools, automating processes, and enhancing team collaboration. Darwinbox hopes to increase this figure to 35% as they adopt new HubSpot features such as custom objects and the recently implemented Operations Hub.
Another triumph for Darwinbox, a company laser-focused on its pipeline, has been the marked improvement in tracking sales-qualified leads (SQLs). This helps them prioritize high-quality prospects, effectively speeding up the sales cycle and driving revenue growth.
Because they’re running more successful outreach and campaigns, Darwinbox's marketing database is growing 30–35% annually. This achievement is pivotal as they continue to push for hypergrowth, aiming to double revenue again in the next two years.
Additionally, the company is seeing stronger collaboration between marketing and sales teams. With shared visibility into campaigns, deals, and data, leads are handed off seamlessly, and any risk of miscommunication is minimized.
“We couldn't have figured all of this out without HubSpot,” said Shantanu. “Our outreach campaigns, our ability to target the right people—it’s all possible because we’re working with integrated data.” Kar adds, “Life without HubSpot seems almost impossible.”
Today, Darwinbox boasts 1,000+ customers and serves nearly three million active end users globally. The business has no plans to lift its foot off the gas and is excited to continue growing.
Upcoming HubSpot features, such as buyer intent tracking and account scoring, look particularly promising for Darwinbox. They plan to use these tools to fine-tune account prioritization and outreach strategies, resulting in even more targeted and effective campaigns that help them reach their revenue targets.
For Darwinbox, HubSpot isn’t just a tool they used to get off the ground, they’re a long-term partner in their journey to ever-greater international success. HubSpot continues to meet their needs no matter how big they get.
“Partnering with HubSpot was absolutely the best decision for us,” said Shantanu. “We’re less than a decade old and analysts like Gartner already recognize us as a leading solution, when it usually takes companies in the HR tech space three times as long to achieve that. The overall functionality, ease of use, and strong customer support make HubSpot the right choice for fast-scaling companies looking for integrated solutions and growth.”
