Manish Panwar of Xumane on AI-Powered ESOP Management, Intelligent Hiring, and Building an Integrated HR–Finance Platform

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, StartupTalky speaks with Manish Panwar, Business Head at Xumane, about how the company is transforming the way organizations manage equity, hiring, and workforce intelligence. As businesses move toward greater transparency, compliance, and AI-led decision-making, Xumane is building an integrated platform that connects ESOP management, HR workflows, and financial intelligence into one seamless ecosystem.

Panwar shares insights on Xumane’s evolution from a cap table and ESOP platform into a broader HR–Finance–AI system, its international expansion, and how AI is being used not to replace human judgment but to enhance clarity, speed, and confidence in decision-making. He also discusses emerging global trends in ownership transparency, workforce analytics, and why the future of work will be driven by systems that combine technology, advisory, and trust.

StartupTalky: What service does Xumane provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

Manish Panwar: Xumane provides a comprehensive, AI-powered digital platform for ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan) and cap table management, combining software automation with expert advisory, financing, and liquidation support. Our solution enables companies to design, issue, monitor, and optimize equity plans like ESOPs, SARs, RSUs, phantom stocks, and more, all with real-time dashboards, scenario modeling, and integrated compliance. 

We started Xumane with the aim to simplify the complexity of equity ownership and make it a strategic growth lever. We saw companies wasting time reconciling scattered data and employees struggling to understand their ownership so we set out to build a platform where equity is transparent, automated, and truly empowering.

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

Manish Panwar: The past year has been a defining one for Xumane. We completed a full rebrand from Vega to Xumane, reflecting our evolution into a unified HR–Finance–AI ecosystem designed to bring people, ownership, and decision-making onto a single platform.

On the product side, we’ve enhanced our Recruitment Module with an AI-powered Interview system that automates candidate evaluations using conversational intelligence, behavioral scoring, and instant shortlist recommendations which significantly simplifying and speeding up the hiring process.

We also significantly strengthened our core equity platform by introducing deeper automation, advanced analytics, and cross-border readiness, enabling companies to manage ownership at scale with greater confidence. Alongside this, we expanded into Singapore, marking our first major step into international markets.

These developments have helped us carve out a clear niche. Xumane is one of the few platforms that truly connects hiring, equity, HR, and finance in one integrated system. Our AI-first approach goes beyond automation to deliver decision intelligence, while maintaining a strong focus on employee experience and transparency. What makes us truly distinctive is our rare combination of technology, advisory expertise, and community-led engagement, creating long-term value for both organizations and their people.

StartupTalky: How has the industry you are in changed in recent years and how has your company adapted to these changes?

Manish Panwar: The HR and fintech industries are undergoing rapid change. Organizations now demand faster hiring decisions, transparent ownership structures, real-time data instead of static reports and AI-driven insights rather than manual judgment. We adapted to these industry changes by moving from point solutions to a platform approach, embedding AI into core workflows - not as an add-on, eliminating spreadsheet dependency across equity and hiring and creating systems that scale across geographies and regulations. In doing so, we didn’t just digitize processes, we made them intelligent, predictive, and human-centric.

StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company's growth and performance?

Manish Panwar: We track metrics that reflect both business health and customer trust - our customer count is currently at 200+ organizations; Net Promoter Score (NPS): 50+; Customer referrals: 15 new accounts purely through advocacy; Product adoption and engagement; Retention and expansion within accounts; and, Brand reach and community growth. These metrics tell us not just how fast we’re growing, but how deeply we’re trusted.

StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

Manish Panwar: The biggest challenge last year was orchestration. We were evolving the product, entering a new geography, rebranding the company, and expanding into recruitment intelligence - all at once. The risk in moments like this is losing clarity, both internally and for customers. We stayed grounded by being obsessive about first principles. Every decision was filtered through simple questions such as whether it makes decision making easier for our customers. We slowed down where needed, over-communicated with customers during transitions, and resisted the temptation to ship complexity for the sake of innovation. That discipline helped us scale without breaking trust.

StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack that you pulled off.

Manish Panwar: We’ve never believed in loud marketing. Our growth has come from earned trust, not paid noise. Most of our traction has been driven by three things: customer advocacy, education, and community.

Xchange Talk was a deliberate decision to start hosting conversations, with HR leaders, finance teams, founders, and operators who are actually in the trenches. Webinars, roundtables, podcasts, campus conversations; these were ecosystem-building efforts. Another one of our community led efforts is Women in Fintech, a dedicated webinar series spotlighting women entrepreneurs and leaders. If there’s a growth hack, it’s this - build credibility before you build demand. That approach led to strong inbound interest and 15+ customers coming purely through referrals. 

StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly? 

Manish Panwar: We’re strong believers in using technology only where it genuinely reduces friction. Our own Xumane platform is the backbone of operations, but beyond that, we keep our stack intentionally lean; analytics for visibility, collaboration tools for speed, secure cloud and compliance systems and AI systems and tools for recruitment, insights, and internal efficiency where they meaningfully improve decision quality. The real tool though, is data discipline. When information is centralized, accessible, and reliable, teams move faster. That’s something we practice internally just as much as we enable for customers. 

StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world?

Manish Panwar: The opportunity is massive: AI-led hiring and workforce intelligence is becoming mainstream; ESOPs and ownership structures are expanding beyond startups into enterprises; Cross-border teams require compliant, global-ready systems; and, Employees increasingly expect transparency and participation in value creation. India is still early in this journey, while global markets are demanding more sophistication, both create strong tailwinds for Xumane.

StartupTalky: What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

Manish Panwar: In India, the market is still learning the ‘why’ behind equity, governance, and AI-led hiring. There’s strong curiosity and fast adoption once value is clear. Globally, the conversation is more mature, the ‘why’ is assumed, and the focus shifts to how well and how safely these systems scale. 

Xumane is uniquely positioned to serve both simple, intuitive onboarding for Indian companies, as well as advanced, AI-driven and compliance-ready solutions for global markets. This difference in market behaviour has taught us an important lesson that products need to be intuitive enough for first-time adopters and sophisticated enough for global operators. Designing for both has shaped how we build Xumane.

StartupTalky: How are you using AI, whether in service delivery, internal processes, or customer experience, and what impact has it created?

Manish Panwar: We’re very deliberate about AI. For us, AI is not about replacing human judgment, it’s about removing noise so better judgment becomes possible. In recruitment, AI helps teams screen, evaluate, and shortlist faster and more consistently. In equity and HR workflows, it supports forecasting, alerts, and scenario planning. The impact has been tangible resulting in faster hiring cycles, fewer errors, and more confident decisions. The real win is that leaders spend less time managing complexity and more time having meaningful conversations, with candidates, employees, and stakeholders.

StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

Manish Panwar: On the customer side, we’re focusing on markets and organizations that value clarity, compliance, and long-term thinking. Like I mentioned earlier, our roadmap includes deeper expansion in Southeast Asia and global markets. On the product side, we’re doubling down on predictive intelligence and deeper integrations across HR, finance, and payroll.

As for the team, we’re growing our teams across product, AI, advisory, and customer success, but we are building slowly and thoughtfully. We look for people who are curious, comfortable with ambiguity, and genuinely care about solving real problems. Culture, at scale, is a design choice and we treat it as one. 

StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another Service company’s leadership teams?

Manish Panwar: Don’t underestimate the power of doing the unglamorous work exceptionally well. Leadership teams often chase scale, features, or visibility too early. If you solve a painful problem reliably, show up when it matters, and earn trust in moments of stress, customers will do your marketing for you. Sustainable companies are built on consistency.

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