Freshworks IPO — 500 crorepatis, $12 billion market cap and more that emerged from India’s first SaaS listing at Nasdaq

• Freshworks made its trading debut on US stock exchange Nasdaq on Wednesday and its valuation touched $12 billion.
• The company sold 28.5 million common shares, raising $1 billion in proceeds.
• The CEO says that the IPO created 500 crorepatis in India, 70 of which are under 30.

Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Freshworks made its trading debut on US stock exchange Nasdaq on Wednesday and it was a strong one. The company was valued at $12.2 billion after it opened 21% above the initial offering price of $36 apiece.

Shares of Freshworks opened at $43.5. The stock hit an intraday high of $48.75 on September 22. Freshworks sold 28.5 million common shares, raising $1 billion in proceeds.

Girish Mathrubootham, in interviews with several media outlets, highlighted that the Freshworks initial public offering (IPO) created a lot of wealth for its employees as more than 500 of its employees turned crorepatis (millionaires). He further added that about 70, of these 500 employees, are under the age of 30.

"I feel like an Indian athlete who has won a gold medal at the Olympics. We are showing the world what a global product company from India can achieve,” he added, in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

The company was valued at $3.5 billion when it raised $150 million funding from investors like Sequoia Capital, CapitalG and Accel in November 2019. The company is also backed by Steadview Capital and Tiger Global Management.

It plans to use the proceeds from the offering to acquire complementary businesses, products, services or technology. A part will also be used for general corporate purposes like working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditure.

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.

Freshworks claims to have 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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