ServiceNow, the US enterprise software company known for automating workflows such as IT service management and HR operations, is tapping an Indian banking software specialist to deepen its foray into global financial services.
The company has invested $40 million in BusinessNext, valuing the 24-year-old Indian company at $700 million and taking a stake of about 5%. The deal gives BusinessNext access to ServiceNow’s global distribution network as the companies expand their partnership in AI for financial services.
ServiceNow’s investment reflects BusinessNext’s growing profile beyond India. The profitable Noida-based company, which generated revenue of around $32 million in the last fiscal, serves more than 70 banks in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the US. Its clients include the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, as well as the State Bank of India and HDFC Bank, which are India’s largest lenders in the public and private sectors, respectively.
About half of BusinessNext’s revenue comes from outside India, with foreign markets expected to drive much of its future growth, founder and CEO Nishant Singh said in an interview.
The company chose ServiceNow over potential financial investors to accelerate its expansion by leveraging the US software company’s global reach. Singh told TechCrunch that the partnership would help BusinessNext “borrow” its key “machines” – referring to ServiceNow’s sales infrastructure – in markets where the company has a limited presence.
“Think of it as a strategic partnership cemented through funding,” he said.
Singh said BusinessNext’s software manages customer-facing banking workflows, while ServiceNow is stronger in workflow automation and back-office systems, a combination the two companies plan to sell together to financial institutions.
“India’s financial services sector is at an inflection point – institutions are moving from digital experimentation to large-scale AI-driven operations,” said Kulmeet Bawa, Group Vice President and Managing Director of ServiceNow for India and SAARC. He added that the partnership combines ServiceNow’s enterprise workflow platform with BusinessNext’s banking expertise.
Founded in 2002, BusinessNext — known as CRMNext until 2022 — has spent several years building what Singh calls an “autonomous banking” platform. It uses AI agents to automate banking processes while storing sensitive customer data on private AI infrastructure to meet regulatory and data protection requirements.
Singh told TechCrunch that AI was built into the company’s platform from the start, rather than added later. “We actually rebranded our company and sort of rewrote our stack to fundamentally focus on that,” he said.
BusinessNext employs more than 1,300 people across its operations and was last valued at $181 million in 2021, according to private market intelligence platform Tracxn. The company has raised more than $60 million in external funding and counts Avataar Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Ascent Capital among its existing investors.
The deal comes as incumbent enterprise software vendors face pressure from customers questioning whether it’s worth paying for traditional SaaS tools as AI-native alternatives emerge. For ServiceNow, the deal expands its position in banking by partnering with a company focused on AI-driven banking software, while the company expands its enterprise software portfolio through acquisitions, investments and partnerships.
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https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/servicenow-bets-40m-on-indian-firm-businessnext-at-700m-valuation-to-deepen-banking-ai-push/
