ServiceNow has invested $40 million to acquire roughly a 5% stake in Indian banking software specialist BusinessNext, valuing the 24-year-old company at $700 million. The investment is intended to accelerate BusinessNext’s international growth and expand a joint focus on AI-driven solutions for financial institutions.
The deal gives BusinessNext access to ServiceNow’s global sales network and positions the two firms to jointly market a combination of BusinessNext’s customer-facing banking workflows and ServiceNow’s strengths in workflow automation and back-office systems.
BusinessNext at a glance
Headquartered in Noida, BusinessNext (founded in 2002 and renamed from CRMNext in 2022) is a profitable company that generated about $32 million in revenue in its latest financial year. It serves more than 70 banks across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the United States, including the Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.
Around half of the company’s revenue currently comes from markets outside India; the founder and CEO Nishant Singh expects overseas markets to drive much of future growth. BusinessNext employs over 1,300 people, has raised more than $60 million in external funding to date, and was last valued at $181 million in 2021 according to private market platform Tracxn. Existing investors include Avataar Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Ascent Capital.
Strategic rationale
Nishant Singh said the company chose ServiceNow over potential financial investors to leverage ServiceNow’s go-to-market capabilities in regions where BusinessNext has a limited presence. He described the arrangement as a strategic partnership that is reinforced by the funding.
BusinessNext has built what it calls an "autonomous banking" platform: AI agents automate banking workflows while keeping sensitive customer data on private AI infrastructure to meet regulatory and privacy requirements. Singh noted that AI was integrated into the platform from the start, and the company adjusted its stack and branding to make AI central to its offering.
Market context and synergies
Kulmeet Bawa, ServiceNow’s group vice president and managing director for India and SAARC, said India’s financial services sector is moving from digital experimentation to full-scale AI-led operations. He framed the partnership as combining ServiceNow’s enterprise workflow platform with BusinessNext’s banking domain expertise.
The transaction comes as established enterprise software vendors face questions from customers about the value of traditional SaaS tools as AI-native alternatives emerge. For ServiceNow, the minority stake and partnership with an AI-focused banking software provider strengthen its position in the banking vertical while it continues to broaden its enterprise software portfolio through acquisitions, investments and alliances.
