Chennai-based Freshworks has raised $100 million from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and CapitalG doubling its valuation to $1.3-$1.4 billion. It has become the newest member of the unicorn club, which has already seen three additions this year.
Software provider Freshworks has now raised $250 million since its inception in 2010. Competing with companies such as Zendesk and Salesforce, it last raised $55 million at a valuation of $700 million in late 2016. The company will use the new capital to improve its SaaS (software as a service) platform and expand sales globally.
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Freshworks, which provides SaaS solutions for customer support, sales and marketing, is a pioneer in India, also named Suresh Seshadri, a former senior executive at US-based software company AppDynamics, as its chief financial officer, ahead of a potential IPO.
Since starting out in October 2010, Freshworks has signed up more than 150,000 clients globally, including Honda Motor, Hugo Boss, Toshiba and Cisco Systems.
Freshworks has made several technology acquisitions – nine in total – to further bolster its product offerings. Several of these technologies were featured in its recently announced cloud bundle, Freshworks 360, which brings together sales, marketing, and support applications to provide users with a complete customer engagement experience.
Other companies which crossed a $1 billion valuation this year are Paytm Mall ($1.9B), Byju’s ($1B), Swiggy ($1.3B) and PolicyBazaar.
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