Freshworks raises $100 million, at $1.5 billion valuation, from Sequoia, Accel, and CapitalG because it plans for IPO

Freshworks, which presents a spread of buyer help and gross sales software program, has raised $100 million in a sequence G spherical of funding co-led by Sequoia and Accel Companions, with participation from Alphabet’s late-stage development fund CapitalG.

The corporate was apparently valued at round $750 million throughout its final spherical of funding in November, 2016. However following its newest sequence G spherical, Freshworks confirmed to VentureBeat that it has now reached a valuation of double that — $1.5 billion.

Based out of Chennai, India in 2010, Freshworks was often known as Freshdesk till it rebranded final yr to mirror an growth past its core helpdesk product. Firms use the cloud-based Freshdesk product to trace buyer conversations, handle tickets, and collaborate with crew members. Freshworks now additionally presents IT service administration software program, gross sales CRM software program, name heart software program, and extra.

“After we began Freshworks in 2010, we had been a single product firm with a aim of providing higher, easier-to-use customer support software program than what was available in the market,” defined Freshworks CEO and cofounder Girish Mathrubootham. “We’ve since scaled our firm to $100 million in annual recurring income and constructed a full SaaS platform the place all of our merchandise — like Freshsales, Freshdesk, and Freshservice — work collectively seamlessly, with out requiring further integration sources or consultants to make the software program merely work.”

Above: Freshworks CEO: Girish Mathrubootham

Before now, Freshworks had raised round $150 million, with CapitalG, Sequoia, and Accel all collaborating in earlier rounds. With a contemporary $100 million within the financial institution, the corporate stated it plans to develop globally and proceed investing in its suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) merchandise.

Curiously, Freshworks has additionally employed AppDynamics’ former VP of finance and treasury, Suresh Seshadri, as its chief monetary officer. Seshadri helped AppDynamics put together for its IPO in 2016 earlier than it was ultimately snapped up by Cisco, so this newest rent means that Freshworks has one thing large brewing for the close to future. The corporate wouldn’t disclose any particular plans to go public — however Mathrubootham did present some sturdy hints that this was a path it's going to pursue.

“With the addition of Suresh main our monetary administration and technique towards a path of free money movement break even and our newest, and sure final, personal funding spherical in place, we consider we now have a novel alternative to draw clients from across the globe who've been let down by legacy options,” he stated.

Individually, a spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that whereas Freshworks doesn’t have a selected timeline in thoughts, it's going to probably go public within the U.S. sooner or later. “Proper now, we’re targeted on rising the enterprise,” they stated. “We don’t have a deadline on IPO … it's going to ultimately occur, however now we're targeted on rising a enterprise.”

Freshworks claims greater than 150,000 shoppers world wide, together with the likes of Honda, Toshiba, Hugo Boss, and the NHS. This places the corporate in place because it prepares to go public. Rival Zendesk has been driving on the crest of a wave because it went public 4 years in the past — from its $9 IPO value in Might 2014, Zendesk’s share value is now sitting at greater than $60.

“Freshworks has been driving an unimaginable wave of development,” added Seshadri. “Approaching board to work with Girish and the remainder of the chief crew is an unimaginable alternative, and I'm assured that we're well-positioned to achieve the following section of Freshworks’ growth.”

Although Freshworks was based in India, it opened an workplace in San Francisco in 2014, and its world headquarters is now in San Bruno, California. Nonetheless, the majority of its staff are nonetheless primarily based in India, the place it claims round 1,400 folks engaged on product growth out of Chennai, with further places of work in London, Berlin, and Sydney.

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