ServiceNow, the American enterprise software company known for automating workflows such as IT service management and HR operations, is banking on an Indian banking software specialist to deepen its push 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 agreement gives BusinessNext access to ServiceNow’s global sales 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 about $32 million in revenue in its last financial year, serves more than 70 banks in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the United States. Its clients include the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, the State Bank of India and HDFC Bank, which are India’s largest public and private sector lenders, respectively.

About half of BusinessNext’s revenue comes from outside India, and foreign markets are 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 taking advantage of the US software group’s global reach. Singh told TechCrunch that the partnership would help BusinessNext “borrow” its flagship “machinery,” referring to ServiceNow’s sales infrastructure, in markets where it has a limited presence.

“Think of it as a strategic partnership, cemented with financing,” he said.

BusinessNext’s software, Singh said, manages customer-facing banking workflows, while ServiceNow is stronger in automating workflow and back-office systems, a combination the two companies plan to jointly sell to financial institutions.

“India’s financial services sector is at an inflection point: institutions are moving from digital experimentation to large-scale operations led by AI,” said Kulmeet Bawa, ServiceNow Group Vice President and Managing Director, 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, using AI agents to automate banking workflows while maintaining sensitive customer data in a private AI infrastructure to comply with regulatory and privacy requirements.

Singh told TechCrunch that AI was built into the company’s platform from the beginning, rather than added later. “We actually renamed our company and rewrote our stack to fundamentally put it at the center,” 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. It 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 established enterprise software vendors face pressure from customers questioning whether traditional SaaS tools are worth paying for when native AI alternatives are emerging. For ServiceNow, the deal strengthens its position in banking by partnering with a company focused on AI-powered banking software, as it expands its enterprise software portfolio through acquisitions, investments and partnerships.