Chennai-founded Freshworks is the first Indian-origin SaaS company listed on the Nasdaq. With this over 500 of its workers have become crorepatis.
Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and co-founder of the California-based company said 70 of those workers are below the age of 30.
Freshworks’ stock started 21% higher than the initial offering price of $36, and had a market cap of more than $13 billion as of Wednesday, September 22.
Girish sees it as a proud moment because Freshworks is the first SaaS firm from India to go public in the United States, and he is excited about what it implies for the country’s sector.
Along with Mathrubootham, Freshdesk was founded by Shan Krishnasamy in 2010. Th company was launched as a helpdesk software for customer service. In June 2017, it chose to rebrand as Freshworks in order to embrace the company’s software package.
According to Girish, when the company first started in Chennai in 2011, it never dreamed of this, but over time, it has grown more daring in its dreams.
He said, “We have a whole new generation of entrepreneurs and founders who are building companies that are scaling nicely, and we all want to share this dream of India as a prospect nation.”
He noted that the business has a competitive advantage because it has access to talent in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
Girish claims that the company’s sales has hit $300 million. FreshWorks formerly stated in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that its customers include Byju’s, Sotheby’s, Cisco Systems, Dunzo, Delivery Hero, Lenskart, and Radisson Hotels.
When it raised $150 million in capital from investors such as Sequoia Capital, CapitalG, and Accel in November 2019, the company was valued at $3.5 billion. Steadview Capital and Tiger Global Management are also investors in the company.
It intends to use the offering money to acquire related businesses, products, services, or technology. A portion of the funds will also be utilised for general corporate reasons such as working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditure.
After the company was listed on the US stock exchanges, Girish congratulated employees, customers, and others for believing in the dream.
He noted that roughly 70 of the 500 crorepatis listed are under the age of 30.
According to Girish, each of his employees deserved this. He says wealth is not just for founders and CEOs and it must be shared with those who contributed to its creation.
He added that FreshWorks has over 4,300 employees worldwide, with 76 percent of them owning stock in the company.
