Business software company Freshworks Inc on Wednesday made a stellar introduction on the Nasdaq market after its billion-dollar IPO. With this, the business becomes the first Indian ‘SaaS’ company and the first unicorn to list on the exchange.
Freshworks is India’s best-known software-as-a-service or SaaS company. It is now headquartered in San Mateo, California, but the larger part of its engineering team is still based in Chennai, in south India.
The firm had rated its US initial public offering (IPO) well above the target span to raise $1.03 billion, considering the Salesforce rival at $10.13 billion as hybrid work fuels require for its products.
Freshworks valued 28.5 million shares at $36 per share, the company supported by Accel and Sequoia Capital said on Tuesday. It had initially expected to raise $969 million at the top end of its risen price range of $32 to $34 per share.
“Today is a dream come true for me – from humble beginnings in #Trichy to ringing the bell [email protected] for the FreshWorks IPO. Thank you to our employees, customers, partners, and investors for believing in this dream. #Freshworks #IPO #NASDAQ,” tweeted founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham.
Now, San Mateo, California-based Freshworks follows by a number of big names from the enterprise software market that has taken advantage of red-hot U.S. capital markets over the elapsed 18 months.
Investors have started already to draw money into Indian SaaS businesses, as they believe that they could be the nation’s next big thing in tech.
Founded in Chennai, India, in 2010, Freshworks assists businesses with client management, proposing products including a messaging platform, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot for customer chat support, and call-center resolutions that ensure shorter wait times.
Freshworks shares are listed to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday under the symbol representation “FRSH”.
Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities are the leading underwriters for the offering.
This is rolling out to be a milestone year for India’s tech unicorns. None had ever gone public earlier. Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce firm regulated by Walmart, is also intending to list in the United States as soon as the fourth quarter of 2021, as per media reports.
