Freshworks boosts IPO price range, expected to list on Nasdaq on September 22 under symbol 'FRSH'.

Customer engagement software maker Freshworks now expects to raise up to $969 million in its upcoming IPO after boosting its price range amid increased demand for technology stocks and blockbuster IPO debuts by SaaS firms in the United States.

Freshworks, which is one of the most anticipated SaaS IPOs of 2021, now plans to sell 28.5 million of its Class A common stock between the price range of $32 to $34 per share, translating to proceeds of $912 million- $969 million at the top end of the range. Including an over-allotment of 2.85 million shares, the company's total offer amount rises to about $1.07 billion.

The firm is expected to list its stock on Nasdaq on September 22 under the symbol "FRSH" and is reportedly eyeing a valuation of around $9.6 billion, up from $3.5 billion when it raised $150 million financing in November 2019.

Freshworks had earlier said that it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures. It may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire complementary businesses, products, services, or technologies.

Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy as Freshdesk, the company rebranded as Freshworks in 2017. It counts the likes of Accel, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global among its investors.

This public offering comes at a time when SaaS IPOs in the US have performed spectacularly, popping (rising sharply) and creating billionaires overnight. The listings of Snowflake, Zoom, Cloudflare and Palantir — already-large private companies becoming even larger public companies — has sparked a new wave of enthusiasm from venture capitalists, private equity funds and hedge funds.

For the first six months of the year, Freshworks saw its revenue grow to $169 million from $110 million in the corresponding period in 2020. Net loss shrunk to $9.8 million from $57 million a year ago. It has over 52,500 customers and 4,300 employees as of August 31.

More than 13,326 of these customers contributed for more than $5,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the company as of June 30,2021, as compared to 9,822 customers a year ago period. Over 50% of its ARR comes from customers with more than 250 employees and about 1,164 customers each contributed $50,000 or more in ARR, the company had said in its IPO filing.