The SAAS company Freshworks on Wednesday got listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, registering a historic moment by becoming the first Indian SaaS company to list on the American bourse.
$FRSH on the @nasdaq! #Freshworks #IPO #NASDAQ pic.twitter.com/eNcMlcFxaN
— Freshworks Inc (@FreshworksInc) September 22, 2021
In a tweet, Mathrubootham said “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 tweeted.
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 pic.twitter.com/fXz73YxXXR
— Girish Mathrubootham (@mrgirish) September 22, 2021
The San Mateo, California-based startup, with the majority of its engineers based in Chennai, sold 28.5 million shares of common stock at $36 each, raising a little over $1 billion with a valuation of more than $10 billion.
On the day of debut- 22 September, the stock opened at $43.50 and closed at $47.55 during intraday.
Founded by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy in 2010 in Chennai, it now has headquarters in San Mateo, California. However, the majority of the employees are from Chennai.
With this listing of Freshworks in NASDAQ, over 500 employees in India have become a crorepati, around 70 of them are under running in their 20s.
Overall, the company has 4,300 employees globally and 76% of employees own shares of the company.
Mathrubootham’s startup is backed by investors like Accel and Sequoia Capital which gives them an edge over others when it comes to access to top talent in India across Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
“…We are growing at a pretty healthy clip at more than 45 per cent…We have more than 52,000 paying customers globally across 120-plus countries…more than 13,000 of those customers are paying us over USD 5,000 in annual recurring revenue,” he said.
“What I am super happy about is what this means for India SaaS. We have a whole next set 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, and I’m excited to see the next set of companies go public, and we want to see more global product companies from India,” he said.
The Indian SaaS industry could reach a valuation of $1 trillion by 2030 and may open up employment opportunities for around half a million people, according to a recent report compiled by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and SaaSBoomi, a community of industry leaders.