An exclusive interview with Manish Panwar, Business Head, Xumane

An exclusive interview with Manish Panwar, Business Head, Xumane

 1. What was the key insight or industry gap that led to the creation of Xumane, and how has that original vision shaped the company’s mission and direction today?

When we looked closely at the market, we saw that startups and even large enterprises were treating equity like an afterthought. ESOPs were being run on spreadsheets, without clarity for employees, and there was no single platform that connected legal, financial, advisory, and execution.

The idea behind Xumane was simple: ownership should be a growth engine, not a compliance task. From day one, our mission has been to make equity transparent, intelligent, and valuable for both the company and the people who help build it.

We power organisations by simplifying the complex challenges of managing equity and cap table by offering AI-powered, human-centered equity management, streamlining the handling of employee stock options, ownership distribution, and cap tables. This enables businesses to focus on growth without getting bogged down by paperwork and complexity. A key differentiator is our scalable, cross-border solutions, which make it easier for companies with global operations to manage ESOPs while ensuring compliance with varying tax laws and regulations.

Additionally, the platform empowers employees by providing accessible data visualizations, real-time valuations, and predictive tools to help them better understand and utilize their equity compensation. From issuing stock options to managing cap tables and preparing for exits, Xumane offers an integrated, end-to-end solution, eliminating the need for multiple tools or services.

2. For founders, CHROs, and CFOs hearing about Xumane for the first time—what fundamental problems in cap table and ESOP management does Xumane solve better than traditional methods and competitors?

Most founders, CHROs, and CFOs today face the same frustrations; ESOP policies designed on paper but impossible to operationalize; cap tables that become inaccurate the moment funding or hiring changes; employees not understanding the value of the equity they’ve been granted and, lastly, auditors, investors, and legal advisors all working in silos. We put everything in one place - be it policy design, implementation, compliance, reporting, employee visibility, CFO dashboards, and advisor workflows - so companies stop firefighting and start managing equity with confidence.

3. Many companies still rely on spreadsheets for equity management. What is Xumane doing—from a technology, compliance, and advisory perspective—that makes this approach outdated?

The biggest issue with spreadsheets is that they don’t scale. And as companies grow, you need: automated vesting and exercise tracking, real-time reporting, automated compliance, digital audit trails, standardized workflows and board-ready reporting. Xumane brings all of this together, and more importantly, we couple the product with in-house experts who understand valuation, law, governance, and ESOP policies. That combination; i.e., strong tech plus advisory is what makes legacy methods outdated.

(Manish Panwar Business Head, Xumane)

4. AI is rapidly reshaping hiring and workforce strategy. How do you see AI influencing how organizations design, manage, and communicate ESOPs, ownership, and long-term wealth creation in the future?

We’re already seeing what AI has done in hiring; faster decisions, stronger evaluation, less bias, more predictability. That same shift is coming to ownership. Today most equity decisions still depend on memory, intuition, and manual processes and AI can change that in three major ways:

Smarter decision-making for founders and HR leaders: AI can simulate dilution, model vesting schedules, forecast future value, and show companies the real implications of their equity choices before issuing a single grant.

Clearer visibility for employees: Just like banking apps show transactions in real time, employees will have dashboards where they can see: what they own today, what it could be worth tomorrow and how their growth impacts upside. 

Compliance and governance without manual oversight: AI can flag errors, missing filings, risks, and policy mismatches before they create problems.

If hiring is becoming intelligence-led, equity will follow the same path, more data, less guesswork, and far more transparency for everyone involved.

5. The recently concluded RecruitAI Summit 2025 in New Delhi highlighted AI-led disruption in hiring. What role do you believe AI should play in enterprise HR, and how would you balance automation with the human touch?

If there was one clear message from the RecruitAI Summit in New Delhi, it was that AI is no longer experimental, it has entered the core operating system of hiring. We saw it live at the summit:

• CXOs and talent leaders openly shared how hiring needs more speed, consistency, and predictability than ever before.

• Our own “Intelligent Interviews” showcase demonstrated how AI can screen faster, evaluate more accurately, and help teams make better decisions without slowing down business.

• The industry panel—from organizations like Mankind Pharma, HT Media Group, Polestar Analytics—echoed the same sentiment that AI should help humans make better calls, not replace human judgement.

And this balance is extremely important. AI should take over the work that drains time but the final decisions, such as interpretation of culture fit, mentorship, team chemistry, and human needs must stay with people. As I said at the event: “AI should strengthen the recruiter, not overshadow them.” If technology gives recruiters, founders, and business leaders more time for real conversations instead of repetitive tasks, we’ve struck the right balance.

6. With a 99% customer retention rate, what have you learned about building a product and service experience that keeps organizations not just satisfied—but deeply loyal and invested?

Honestly, it comes down to something simple, which is, listen to customers more than you talk to them. We didn't set out trying to build the flashiest product, rather we focused on solving the everyday operational headaches founders and HR leaders deal with: audit stress, compliance risk, employees who don’t understand what they own, and the chaos of managing changing cap tables through spreadsheets.

Most of our roadmap has come directly from customer pain. If 10 companies tell you the same thing is broken, you fix it. That approach has served us better than any market research deck. Also, companies don’t want another tool, they want peace of mind. If we help them work better during board meetings, M&A processes, or audits, they stay. The 99% retention rate is just a reflection of that.

7. Xumane works with fast-scaling companies. What does an HR strategy look like that supports rapid growth while ensuring compliance, ESOP transparency, strong governance, and talent stability?

The fastest-growing companies I’ve seen all have one thing in common: clarity - in how people are hired, how they’re compensated, how ownership works and what success looks like. A strong strategy at scale usually includes a clear ownership framework, systems that enforce rules and ensuring HR sits next to business, not behind it. Scale works when the org chart grows without the culture cracking.

8. In a fast-changing regulatory and fintech environment, how do you build an organizational culture that embraces digital adoption, speed, continuous learning, and high performance?

You can’t push digital adoption top-down, people adopt technology when it genuinely makes their work easier. If information sits with only a few people, everything slows down. What matters to us is democratising information, keeping it open and accessible so decisions happen faster. Another aspect is that in fintech and compliance, the rules change constantly. People who stay ahead of those shifts add outsized value.

Lastly, if the leadership is still working on intuition and offline spreadsheets, no one else will move to data-first processes. Speed and digital transformation comes from removing friction and making the smarter way also the easier way.

9. Can you share a success story where Xumane transformed how a company managed equity or improved employee ownership transparency and engagement?

One great example comes from a large NBFC-MFI in India with more than 500 branches nationwide. As the company grew, it introduced performance-linked ESOPs to reward employees and build long-term ownership. But success brought complexity. The plan became too big to manage on spreadsheets, and HR was struggling with:

• Constant manual data updates

• Risk of mistakes in vesting calculations

• Static rules that didn’t reflect real performance

• Employees who had no clear visibility into what their ESOPs were actually worth

At that point, they moved to Xumane which integrated directly with their HRMS and automated the entire ESOP engine. Vesting was now driven by real performance ratings, with dynamic adjustments built in. The system handled compliance automatically, and employees finally had a portal where they could see their grants, vesting progress, and value in real time.

The results were immediate and measurable:

• HR effort dropped from around 20 hours per vesting cycle to less than 1 hour, thanks to automated mapping

• Vesting errors were virtually eliminated

• Compliance became audit-ready without extra work

• Employees gained complete, real-time visibility into their ownership

Xumane didn’t just digitize their ESOPs; it made the ownership experience transparent, trustworthy, and scalable as the company continued to grow.

10. What major milestones—whether in product innovation, AI features, new markets, or partnerships—can we expect from Xumane over the next 24–36 months?

A few things are already in motion:

1. Expansion into Southeast Asia: We’re gearing up to roll out in markets like Singapore and Indonesia with region-specific compliance, tax, and equity frameworks built into the product. 

2. More automation and predictive intelligence: Equity decisions carry long-term consequences. We’re building the ability for the platform to flag compliance risks, simulate dilution, help structure grants and offer financial insight proactively.  

3. Deeper integrations: ESOPs sit at the intersection of HR, finance, payroll, and investor reporting. We’re integrating tightly with major HRIS and payroll systems so that equity flows through the organization as real-time data, not quarterly updates.

We are aiming for Xumane to become the backbone of how companies manage ownership by staying true to who we are and what we offer which is simple, compliant, and built for scale.