Freshworks files for an IPO in the US, looks to raise $100 million

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Freshworks files for an IPO in the US, looks to raise $100 million
Girish Mathrubootham, founder of FreshworksTwitte/BI India
  • Freshworks is seeking to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol FRSH.
  • The company thanked Indian actor Rajinikanth in its preliminary filings for the IPO.
  • Chennai and California-based reported a revenue of $169 million in the first half of 2021.
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Girish Mathrubootham-led software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Freshworks has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. The company is looking to raise $100 million, the company’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed.

The IPO is being led by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Bank of America. Freshworks is seeking to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol FRSH.

Founded by Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy as Freshdesk in 2010, the company started its journey as a helpdesk software for customer support. It decided to rebrand itself to Freshworks in June 2017 to incorporate the company’s growing software suite.

The company was founded in Chennai but moved to Silicon Valley a couple of years back as most of its customers were present in the US. The company is now based out of San Mateo in California, yet it retains a substantial workforce in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai city.

Freshworks has over 52,500 customers across the globe and it reported a revenue of $169 million in the first half of 2021. Compared to the first half of 2020, the company’s revenue has grown by nearly $60 million.

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The company reported a loss of $9.8 million in the first half of 2021, compared to $59 million reported in the same time period of 2020.

In the preliminary documents for its IPO, Mathrubootham has compared Freshworks software to Apple’s iPhone. He notes that businesses shouldn’t have to rely on multiple tools to engage with customers.

“Before 2007, we were all using multiple devices — I personally had a Nokia cellphone, a Garmin GPS, a Sandisk MP3 Player and a Canon point-and-shoot camera… As consumers, we were quick to ditch our gadgets for a single product with a superior unified, intuitive, and delightful experience,” he said.

According to data platform Crunchbase, Freshworks has raised over $480 million to date across nine funding rounds. The company is backed by Steadview Capital, Accel, CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management and others. The company was valued at $3.5 billion in June 2020.

Freshworks thanked Indian actor Rajinikanth in the preliminary filings for its IPO.

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“The code name for our IPO was Project SuperStar, named after the most successful movie star from Tamil Nadu, Rajinikanth. I want to express my love and gratitude to him for being my maanaseega guru. There is no comparable English word to express what this means. It is a mentor; a role model that lives in your mind, from whom you learn a lot by watching from afar. SuperStar is a man who is loved and worshipped by millions of fans globally. He is immensely successful yet humble and down to earth. Thank you, Thalaivaa!,” the filings read.

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