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

Freshworks, which offers a range of customer support and sales software, has raised $100 million in a series G round of funding co-led by Sequoia and Accel Partners, with participation from Alphabet’s late-stage growth fund CapitalG.

The company was apparently valued at around $750 million during its last round of funding in November, 2016. But following its latest series G round, Freshworks confirmed to VentureBeat that it has now reached a valuation of double that — $1.5 billion.

Founded out of Chennai, India in 2010, Freshworks was known as Freshdesk until it rebranded last year to reflect an expansion beyond its core helpdesk product. Companies use the cloud-based Freshdesk product to track customer conversations, manage tickets, and collaborate with team members. Freshworks now also offers IT service management software, sales CRM software, call center software, and more.

“When we started Freshworks in 2010, we were a single product company with a goal of offering better, easier-to-use customer service software than what was in the market,” explained Freshworks CEO and cofounder Girish Mathrubootham. “We’ve since scaled our company to $100 million in annual recurring revenue and built a full SaaS platform where all of our products — like Freshsales, Freshdesk, and Freshservice — work together seamlessly, without requiring additional integration resources or consultants to make the software simply work.”

Above: Freshworks CEO: Girish Mathrubootham

Prior to now, Freshworks had raised around $150 million, with CapitalG, Sequoia, and Accel all participating in previous rounds. With a fresh $100 million in the bank, the company said it plans to expand globally and continue investing in its suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) products.

Interestingly, Freshworks has also hired AppDynamics’ former VP of finance and treasury, Suresh Seshadri, as its chief financial officer. Seshadri helped AppDynamics prepare for its IPO in 2016 before it was eventually snapped up by Cisco, so this latest hire suggests that Freshworks has something big brewing for the near future. The company wouldn’t divulge any specific plans to go public — but Mathrubootham did provide some strong hints that this was a path it will pursue.

“With the addition of Suresh leading our financial management and strategy toward a path of free cash flow break even and our latest, and likely last, private funding round in place, we believe we have a unique opportunity to attract customers from around the globe who have been let down by legacy solutions,” he said.

Separately, a spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that while Freshworks doesn’t have a specific timeline in mind, it will likely go public in the U.S. in the future. “Right now, we’re focused on growing the business,” they said. “We don’t have a deadline on [an] IPO … it will eventually happen, but now we are focused on growing a business.”

Freshworks claims more than 150,000 clients around the world, including the likes of Honda, Toshiba, Hugo Boss, and the NHS. This puts the company in a good position as it prepares to go public. Rival Zendesk has been riding on the crest of a wave since it went public four years ago — from its $9 IPO price in May 2014, Zendesk’s share price is now sitting at more than $60.

“Freshworks has been riding an incredible wave of growth,” added Seshadri. “Coming on board to work with Girish and the rest of the executive team is an incredible opportunity, and I am confident that we are well-positioned to reach the next phase of Freshworks’ expansion.”

Though Freshworks was founded in India, it opened an office in San Francisco in 2014, and its global headquarters is now in San Bruno, California. However, the bulk of its employees are still based in India, where it claims around 1,400 people working on product development out of Chennai, with additional offices in London, Berlin, and Sydney.