Microsoft continues to show strong interest in the employee experience (EX) and HR tech space with a collaboration and financial investment in Darwinbox. In a blog post, Darwinbox reported that Microsoft has committed resources for product and R&D, and the two companies will be working together to integrate across Microsoft product lines such as Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Viva. Darwinbox will also be adopting Microsoft Azure to enrich its Human Capital Management (HCM) SaaS platform.

Darwinbox’s mobile-first platform helps to individualize an employee’s company interactions by bringing work-related transactions and experiences directly into the workflow. The company laid out the following benefits of the relationship:

• HR in the flow of work: With Darwinbox on Teams, employees have access to HR services without needing to switch between multiple apps. HR transactions like attendance, leaves, access to policies, and recognitions can happen in a one command, employees can raise queries via Helpdesk on Teams, and they can be notified of important tasks. There will also be the ability to share performance feedback on Teams.  
• Better analytics and decision making: Native Power BI and Azure data lake integration allows for improved data visualizations to help aid better decision-making as well as ability to scale HR analytics at whole-company level.
• Accelerate talent development: The ability to map Darwinbox employee talent profiles with the Microsoft ecosystem enables better stack ranking, contextual and personalized onboarding, and intelligent learning recommendations via Viva and LinkedIn Learning.  
• AI and Automation: Darwinbox’s integration with Azure data lake promises exceptional scale for data analysis. AI models like Attrition Risk Prediction and Candidate ‘Likeliness to Join’ can help improve decision-making.  

“We’ve always had the highest regard for the Microsoft brand and ethos. As we align on the joint vision of helping our customers unlock new levels of employee experience and productivity, we’re excited to co-innovate on multiple lines of IP development and take these solutions to our customers globally,” says Jayant Paleti, Co-Founder, Darwinbox.

“Across the country, organizations big and small are making possible new ways of doing business and we are pleased to work closely with leaders like Darwinbox, who are completely reimagining the frontiers of employee experience with the power of technology. Our collaboration with Darwinbox builds on our focus of co-innovating with our customers to empower organizations across India to do more with less,” says Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India.

Darwinbox offers a broad range of capabilities across the HR tech and EX technology ecosystem including solutions for core HR, employee helpdesk, rewards & recognition, time & attendance, onboarding, performance management, payroll, recruitment, people analytics, travel & expense, and employee engagement. The fast-growing company opened a new global headquarters in Hyderabad, India, in November 2022 and was recently noted in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM suites. In January 2022, the company had a Series D funding round of $72 million, which was led by Technology Crossover Ventures, but also had participation from companies who had previously invested, including Endiya Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia India, and Lightspeed India. The company has 1,200+ employees in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

Microsoft has been ramping its efforts in the employee experience segment with a stream of enhancements to its Viva platform. The platform now has modules for insights, connection, goals, engagement, and learning.