Salesforce rival Freshworks aims for $9-bn valuation in $912-mn US IPO

Freshworks Inc is aiming for a nearly $9 billion valuation in a U.S. initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing by the business and customer engagement software company on Monday.

The company, which rivals Salesforce.com Inc, said it would sell 28.5 million shares priced between $28 and $32. At the top end of the range, it will raise $912 million.

The San Mateo, California-based firm joins a slew of listings from the software and technology sector. Most such debuts have seen strong interest from market participants who expect the companies to benefit from the shift to hybrid work following the pandemic.

Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, Freshworks was launched from the South Indian city of Chennai. It raised its first round of funds in 2011 and in the same year it bagged its first customer - the Atwell College in Australia.

Venture capital firm Accel and New York-based technology investment giant Tiger Global Management were the early investors in the company.

Freshworks has a suite of products that help businesses with customer management like a messaging platform and an artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot for customer support.

It was valued at around $3.5 billion during its last funding round in November 2019. Sequoia Capital India and CapitalG are also its backers.

Reuters reported in April that a stock market debut could value Freshworks at around $10 billion.

Its technology is used by more than 50,000 companies in 120 countries, including high-profile names like Delivery Hero SE , Vice Media and Swedish payments firm Klarna.

Freshworks will list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol "FRSH".

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Bofa Securities are lead underwriters.