Chennai’s Freshworks first SaaS start-up in India to list on Nasdaq

BENGALURU:  Film legend Rajnikanth’s fan ( as he likes to call himself) and the co-founder and CEO of Girish Mathrubootham has led the India’s first Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company to list on the Nasdaq at a nearly $10.13 billion valuation, spearheading the rise of enterprise software businesses which have boomed since the pandemic. 

The company which had a humble beginning from a 700 sqft warehouse in Chennai shifted to California a few years later and has attracted investments and clients from worldwide. Freshworks on Wednesday announced that it will be raising $1.03 billion, higher than earlier estimates of $912 million by selling 28.5 million shares priced at $36 per share. The jump in the valuation of Freshworks is almost 3x increase from  the last financing round.

“Today is a dream come true for me — from humble beginnings in #Trichy to ringing the bell at @Nasdaq for the FreshWorks IPO. Thank you to our employees, customers, partners, and investors for believing in this dream. #Freshworks #IPO #NASDAQ ,” Mathrubootham said in a tweet.

The California-based firm had earlier informed the US Securities and Exchanges Commission in a filing on Monday that it is planning to issue 28.5 million shares in the price range of $28-$32, aggregating to a total raise between $798-912 million. The Freshworks shares will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol “FRSH” and is expected to be oversubscribed in line with the listings of the new-age companies which have been well received at the stock exchanges.

Freshworks, which counts the likes of Salesforce, Oracle and home-grown firm Zoho as its rivals, has clinched a majority of its clients from the US leveraging the digital transformation undertaken by the enterprises during the pandemic. The company said in its prospectus that its last twelve months revenue(LTM) was $308 million with a strong 49% growth.