Indian CRM tech startup Freshworks aims for nearly $9 billion valuation for a U.S. IPO in August

India-based customer relationship management (CRM) software startup is planning for a nearly $9 billion valuation in a U.S. initial public offering. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.

We covered FreshWorks two years ago after the San Mateo, California-based startup secured $150 million in Series H funding at a $3.5 billion valuation. Since then, the company nearly tripled its valuation to about $9 billion.

Founded in 2010 by CEO Girish Mathrubootham, Shan Krishnasamy, and Vijay Shankar, Freshworks started its journey in India as a provider of SaaS-based innovative customer engagement software solutions. Freshworks has a suite of products that help businesses of all sizes with customer management like a messaging platform and an artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot for customer support. It enables businesses to acquire, close, and keep customers through a complete view of the customer.

According to the filing, FreshWorks, which rivals Salesforce.com, said it plans to sell 28.5 million shares at a price range of $28 to $32. If the firm is able to sell its shares at the top range, it will raise $912 million. Freshworks had originally filed paperwork for its IPO in late August but hadn’t disclosed several figures.

“Freshworks Inc. is offering 28,500,000 shares of our Class A common stock. This is our initial public offering, and no public market currently exists for shares of our Class A common stock. We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $28.00 and $32.00 per share,” the company said in its SEC filing.

Since its inception 11 years ago, Freshworks has raised a total of $484 million in funding over 9 rounds. Its latest funding was raised on January 1, 2020. Sequoia Capital India and CapitalG are also its backers.