Goldman Sachs Alternatives has acquired a majority stake in PeopleStrong Technologies Private Limited for $130 million.
Argus Partners advised the founders and management team of PeopleStrong.
The transaction team consisted of Rachika Agrawal Sahay (Partner), Siddhant Satapathy (Principal Associate), Mrinal Mishra (Senior Associate), and Govind Sharma (Associate).
Udit Mendiratta (Partner) and Apeksha Singh (Associate) advised PeopleStrong on data retention policy aspects.
The firm also advised PeoepleStrong's existing investor, HDFC Bank on the stake sale.
The transaction team consisted of Adity Chaudhury (Partner), Arka Majumdar (Partner), Pulkit Gera (Associate) and Sakshi Mehta (Associate).
IndusLaw advised the erstwhile controlling shareholders, Plenty Private Equity and Multiples Private Equity and certain other selling shareholders on this stake sale.
The transaction team consisted of Aakash Dasgupta (Partner), Tushar Gogoi (Principal Associate), Aditya Kumar (Senior Associate), Ravin Abhyankar (Associate), Anshul Bhuwalka (Associate), Ayushi Gupta (Associate) and Khushi Vardhan (Associate).
Kartik Ganapathy (Founding & Senior Partner) provided strategic inputs on certain aspects of this transaction.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was the transaction counsel for Goldman Sachs.
The transaction was led by Ravindra Bandhakavi, Senior Partner; Srabanee Ghosh, Partner; with support from Akshat Parmar, Principal Associate; Sudarshan Srikanth, Senior Associate; Aishwarya Dixit, SA – Designate, and Aeruva Akash, Associate.
The due diligence exercise was led by Srabanee Ghosh, Partner, with support from Akshat Parmar, Principal Associate, Sudarshan Srikanth, Senior Associate, Radhika Shukla, Senior Associate, Raghuvansh Seth, Associate, and Aeruva Akash, Associate.
The intellectual property / information technology related diligence and documentation were led by Arun Prabhu, Partner (Head - Technology); with support from Soumya Tiwari, Associate; Anoushka Soni, Associate; and Saloni Agrawal, Associate.
The diligence on and amendments to the Company’s ESOP structure were led by Bharath Reddy, Partner; with support from Simran Jain, Senior Associate; and Mayank Jain, Associate.
Herbert Smith Freehills acted as the international counsel for Goldman Sachs.
This deal saw Goldman Sachs take over stake from previous investor Multiples Private Equity, who exited with a substantial return, and also included a portion of the employee stock option pool. The acquisition valued PeopleStrong at around ₹1200 crore (approximately $144 million USD), highlighting the company's growth and recent profitability, with a net profit of ₹57 crore in FY24. PeopleStrong, known for its AI-powered HCM platform serving over 500 enterprise clients across multiple regions, plans to leverage Goldman Sachs' investment to accelerate AI innovation, expand its global footprint, and reach 10 million users in the coming years.
PeopleStrong is a Gurugram-based human capital management (HCM) software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that offers an AI-powered platform with a comprehensive suite of HR solutions, including applicant tracking, payroll, employee experience, and talent management. Serving over 500 enterprise clients across India and international markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the company has demonstrated significant growth and recently achieved profitability.
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