Girish Rowjee of greytHR on Building a Compliance-First HRMS, AI-Powered Simplicity, and Scaling People Operations Globally

StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future.

In this edition of Recap’25, StartupTalky speaks with Girish Rowjee, Co-founder & CEO of greytHR, who reflects on building one of India’s most widely adopted HRMS platforms by keeping simplicity, compliance, and customer trust at the core. What began as a payroll solution designed for small and mid-sized businesses has evolved into a full-suite, hire-to-retire HR platform serving over 30,000 organisations and more than 3 million employees across 30 countries.

Rowjee shares how greytHR has navigated a year marked by rapid shifts in HR technology, rising expectations for mobile-first experiences, and the growing role of AI in people operations. The conversation explores greytHR’s product evolution, from Recruit and Performance Management to AI-enabled OCR and intelligent assistance, as well as its approach to scaling compliance across geographies. He also discusses the importance of customer success ecosystems, responsible AI adoption, and greytHR’s global expansion plans across Southeast Asia and beyond, offering practical insights for SaaS founders building trust-driven, people-first platforms.

StartupTalky: What service does greytHR1 provide? What inspired you to start it?

Girish Rowjee: greytHR is a full-suite HRMS platform that offers comprehensive ‘hire-to-retire’ solutions for managing people operations. From recruitment and onboarding to payroll, compliance, performance, engagement, and exit, we simplify the entire HR lifecycle through one integrated system.

When we started greytHR, we noticed that while large companies had access to complex systems, small and mid-sized businesses were managing payroll and compliance manually, often with spreadsheets and a lot of back-and-forth.

Our goal was to change that by building something simple, affordable, and designed for India’s compliance needs. What began as a payroll product has grown into a full HR platform used by over 30,000 businesses across 30 countries. We serve more than 3 million employees and process salaries worth over Rs. 1.8 lakh crore each year. Our mission is still the same: to make HR simpler and let organisations focus on their people.

StartupTalky: What new features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your SaaS?

Girish Rowjee: In the past year, we’ve added several new features to strengthen the platform.

We introduced Recruit to simplify hiring, launched Performance Management to enable continuous feedback and goal tracking. We also added AI-enabled OCR in our Expense Claims module to deliver a faster, smarter, and more user-friendly experience, which has quickly become one of our most appreciated features.

What sets greytHR apart is the depth we deliver without the usual complexity:

• A complete hire-to-retire HRMS
• Compliance‑first automation that’s localized, dependable, and built for Indian and multi‑country needs
• A mobile-first experience used by over 3 million employees
• Seamless scalability from 5 to 5,000+ employees

StartupTalky: How did your industry evolve in the past year, and what changes did you make to stay relevant or ahead of the curve?

Girish Rowjee: Over the past year, HR tech has moved beyond automation. Businesses today expect AI assistance, mobile‑first experiences, and tools that are easy to adopt and scale. HR teams are expected to deliver more with fewer resources, while employees demand fast, self‑service access to everything.

To stay ahead, this year we focused on two areas: usability and intelligent assistance. 

We began with an AI-powered chatbot to handle everyday HR queries. We also introduced AI features across the platform, from resume screening and tone‑aware feedback to OCR‑based expense claims where receipts are automatically read and filled in. These save time and reduce errors, and empower HR teams to focus on strategic work.

As mobile usage grew, we scaled our app experience. With over 1 million downloads, the greytHR mobile app is already among India’s most-used HRMS platforms.

StartupTalky: Which key metrics do you track most closely to evaluate business growth and product performance?

Girish Rowjee: We track the metrics that show how much value customers are getting from the product:- Active customers and users- Daily and monthly usage across modules- Time to go live- Mobile app usage and downloads- Volume of transactions like payrolls, claims, and leaves- Retention rates and customer feedback

These numbers help us see what’s working and where to improve.

StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges you faced this year, product, market, or operations – and how did you address them?

Girish Rowjee: One of the bigger challenges this year was managing scale while keeping things simple. As we added more features like Recruit, Performance Management, and AI‑powered tools, it became important to ensure the platform still felt easy to use for both HR teams and employees.

We addressed this by doubling down on user experience, simplifying workflows, refining the mobile app, and making sure new capabilities integrated seamlessly with existing ones. Much of this came from listening closely to customer feedback and iterating quickly.

On the operations side, supporting 30,000+ businesses across multiple geographies with varying compliance needs meant constantly keeping pace with regulations. We built that into our DNA with strong in‑house compliance expertise and automation that scales.

Like every SaaS company, we also had to balance new growth opportunities with focus. Expanding into new regions like Indonesia brought exciting momentum, but also meant revalidating product-market fit and localising support.

What helped us through all of this was staying close to our customers and grounded in our original goal: to simplify HR and make everyday work easier.

StartupTalky: Customer success has become critical for SaaS sustainability. What strategies have worked best for engagement and reducing churn?

Girish Rowjee: In HR tech, customer success goes beyond good support. It is about building trust, delivering value, and staying relevant to the evolving needs of HR leaders and business owners.

At greytHR, we support customers across every stage, from onboarding to ongoing adoption and growth. This year, we placed special emphasis on early engagement. A guided onboarding experience has helped customers get started faster, while regular check‑ins and in‑field support have strengthened relationships.

What sets us apart is the post‑sales ecosystem we have built and continue to invest in. This includes:

• greytHR Academy, our learning hub for product training and certifications
• Parichay, our expert‑led webinar series for peer learning
• greytFM, our award‑winning podcast that brings industry voices and HR insights to the forefront

These free, accessible resources help users stay informed, deepen product understanding, and feel supported as they grow. For us, customer success means more than retention. It is about enabling long‑term impact through partnership, education, and support.

StartupTalky: AI is now reshaping SaaS at every level. How are you using AI across your product or operations, and what tangible impact has it delivered so far?

Girish Rowjee: We’ve taken a responsible approach to AI adoption, focusing on where it can truly simplify work for HR teams and employees.

It started with a basic chatbot to handle everyday queries. Over time, we’ve embedded AI into key workflows — from resume screening in Recruit and tone‑aware feedback in Engage to OCR‑powered expense claims where receipts are automatically read and filled. These features reduce manual effort, save time, and improve accuracy.

Beyond HR workflows, we are also using AI to strengthen our own operations. It accelerates code development, optimizes customer onboarding journeys, and helps sales teams engage better with prospects. We’ve introduced internal knowledge bots that train and coach new team members on products and solutions, reducing ramp‑up time and improving consistency.

We use AI responsibly, with guardrails to ensure privacy, transparency, and relevance. For us, AI is an enabler, not a replacement, and always designed to support humans.

StartupTalky: Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest growth opportunities for your industry in India and globally, and how are you preparing for them?

Girish Rowjee: We see strong growth ahead in two key areas: deeper adoption within India and expansion into emerging markets where HR digitisation is gaining momentum.

In India, more businesses are moving away from manual processes and fragmented tools toward full-suite HRMS platforms. Even smaller and mid-sized companies now expect mobile-first, compliance-ready systems, and they are adopting them faster than ever.

Globally, similar shifts are happening in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. We have already expanded into Indonesia and are now opening in Singapore. These are important steps in building a broader regional presence.

To prepare, we are investing in product scalability, self-serve onboarding, and localised compliance automation for multi-country teams. We are also focused on keeping the platform simple and user-friendly, even as we expand its depth.

Our goal remains the same: to help businesses run HR better and build stronger, people-first workplaces. That is the opportunity we are building for.

StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another SaaS founder?

Girish Rowjee: Build with trust, scale with clarity.

In HR tech, you are handling sensitive data and critical processes. Your product must be reliable, secure, and easy to adopt. Trust is the foundation, and often the most lasting competitive edge.

At the same time, stay adaptable. AI is moving fast, customer expectations are shifting, and simplicity is becoming a true differentiator. Learn quickly, simplify often, and stay close to real user needs.

Explore more Recap'25 interviews here.