Today we will be discussing IPOs. IPO which stands for Initial Public Offerings is a scheme in which shares of a company are publicly offered to institutional investors, and sold to retail investors. History has seen many famous IPOs launching, being successful, and many even failed.
The largest global IPOs of all time are- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Agriculture Bank of China, ICBC, Visa Inc, AIA Group Limited, and many others. Some of the IPOs which have been proved as a disappointment to the investors are- The DMart Story, Reliance Power.
Let us come to the IPO we have come here to discuss. The startup Freshworks has announced on August 28, 2021, that it has made the submission of its initial documents for an IPO valuing at USD 100 million in the United States. The startup is planning to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol FRSH. The IPO of this startup is one of the most discussed and looked forward to, with investors keeping their eyes on it.
The number of the shares and the price range at which they are to be offered are yet to be decided. The companies that will be acting as the lead book -running managers for this proposal will be Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and BofA Securities.
About the IPO filed startup
Founded on October 13, 2010, by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, Freshworks is a SaaS-based startup. It is engaged in helping businesses to delight their employees and customers in a fast and easy way. The approach taken by the startup is to build and deliver Software-as-a-Service that is affordable, quick to implement, and designed for the end-user.
The startup does not work like legacy software and instead builds technology that can be used by anyone and everyone, thus helping businesses across all domains – IT, customer service, sales, marketing, and HR to do their work and make sure that their customers are happy and delighted.
The startup is of the belief that whether a business is small or big, whether just starting or being in the business for a long time, each business deserves to make its customers and employees happy. It also believes that each business deserves access to products with uncompromising craftsmanship at an affordable price.
The startup claims that it goes an extra mile to meet the needs of their customers and works with them to achieve the results they aspire for. It says “Your success is our success”. The tagline of the startup is “We are Freshworks and we are in the business of creating delight”.
The journey of the startup is as follows-
2010- Founders Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy begin working on creating a user-focused cloud-based customer service software, thus officially incorporating Freshdesk.
2011- The startup raises USD 1 million in its first round of funding, from VC firm Accel and gains its first customer Atwell College of Australia
2012- The startup raises USD 5 million in the second round of funding from Accel and Tiger Global Management, a New York-based investment firm
2015-The startup acquires 1CLICK.io, Konotor, and Frilp
2016- The startup launches its second product, which is a CRM product named Freshsales
2017- The startup Freshdesk Inc. rebrands to Freshworks Inc.
2018- Freshworks crosses USD 100 million in annual recurring revenue, and launches a multi-product suite, which is called Freshworks 360
2019- The startup features #40 on the Forbes Cloud List 100 for the third consecutive year and enters three Gartner Magic Quadrant Reports in the Customer Engagement Software segment
2020- The startup crosses USD 200 million in annual recurring revenue, rises to #16 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list, and features as the only “Visionary” company in the MQ of Gartner for CRM Customer Engagement Center
2021- The startup crosses USD 300 million in annual recurring revenue, and continues to be the only “Visionary” company in the MQ of Gartner for CRM Customer Engagement Center for the second consecutive year
Some of the numbers which are important to the San Mateo, California headquartered startup are as follows-
It has USD 120 billion total addressable markets (IDC)
It is ranked 10 in 4x Forbes Cloud 100 Winner of 2021
It had raised a total of USD 327 million in funding from various investors like Accel, Capital G, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management
It has more than 4000 employees globally
It has more than 50000 customers in more than 120 countries like Bridgestone, Chargebee, DeliveryHero, ITV, OfficeMax, Multichoice, TaylorMade, and Vice Media
It has more than 400 partners and more than 1000 applications in the Freshworks Marketplace
The Board of Directors of the startup comprises of-
Roxanne S. Austin who is the Former President and COO of DIRECTV
Johanna Flower who is the Former CMO of CrowdStrike
Sameer Gandhi, who is the Partner at Accel
Randy Gottfried, who is the Former CFO of AppDynamics
Girish Mathrubootham, who is the CEO and Founder of Freshworks
Zachary Nelson, who is the Former CEO of Netsuite
Barry Padgett, who is the Former CFO of Stripe
The startup has seen an increase of 49% in the last twelve months (LTM) in ist revenue, which was USD 308 million. It even has decreased its losses to USD 10 million.
About the CEO
Girish Mathrubootham, who is the co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, has been awarded The Economic Times Startup of the Year 2016. He is also a part of the Product Council for NASSCOM , which is a trade association of Indian software companies and is an active worker to promote and nurture startups and young entrepreneurs. He also runs a charitable trust to promote grassroots football in India.
Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, he did all his schooling there and eventually went to college in Shanmugha in Tanjore, and then went to Chennai in 1996 for his MBA. He has previously worked in HCL Technologies. He is a huge fan of Rajnikanth, who is a Tamil superstar. Because of him being such a big fan, he has given a special mention for his “Thalaiva” in the regulatory filing, as the code name for the IPO is Project SuperStar.
What does the CEO say
The CEO Girish Mathrubootham said that he is thankful to Rajnikanth for being his manaseega guru and he expresses his love and gratitude to him. He said that there are no words to express what it means. He further said that it is a mentor, a role model that lives in the mind, from whom one learns by simply watching them. He said that SuperStar Rajnikanth is loved and worshipped by millions of his fans across the globe and is extremely humble, in spite of being very successful. He ended it by saying, “Thank you, Thalaivaa!”
The startup is successful and is doing great. We wish it a good luck and a bright future ahead.
Edited by Sanjana Simlai.
