Steadview backs India SaaS player Freshworks
Steadview Capital has invested $85 million in India and US-based cloud business software developer Freshworks through the purchase of shares from existing investors.
Ravi Mehta, a managing director at Steadview, told The Economic Times that the transaction closed earlier this year and facilitated exits for angel investors.
Freshworks, formerly known as Freshdesk, previously raised $150 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Capital G last year. This was its seventh round, with others having featured the likes of Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management.
Freshworks provides software intended to help customer support, sales, and marketing professionals communicate more effectively with customers and team members. Apart from the core software-as-a-service (SaaS) product Freshdesk, it offers 11 other digital tools often bundled together in a multi-product suite. The company employs 3,000 people across 11 offices globally.
More than 40,000 customers use Freshworks’ products worldwide, including the NHS, Honda, Rightmove, Hugo Boss, Citizens Advice, Toshiba, and Cisco. The company claims to have achieved $200 million in annual recurring revenue this year. Annual recurring revenue is a measure of the money that comes in each year over the life of a subscription or contract.
Earlier in the year, Freshworks acquired AnsweriQ, a US start-up that provides artificial intelligence tools that enable self-service solutions, and Flint, a Singapore-headquartered IT orchestration and cloud management platform.
Founded in 2009, Steadview is an Asia-focused alternative asset manager that has backed several leading Indian start-ups. It is an investor in ride-hailing platform Ola, online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, and eyewear retailer Lenskart.
This year, Steadview has made follow-on investments in online cosmetics platform Nykaa, small business-focused payments player BharatPe, route optimization software provider Loginext, digital wealth manager INDwealth, and healthcare data platform Innovacer. Mehta anticipates that a number of companies in the portfolio could be ready for IPOs next year.
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