Freshworks Inc., the first Indian software company to list on the Nasdaq, secured more than $1 billion in its initial public offering, with shares climbing 32% in its debut on Wednesday.
Its foray on Wall Street sparks excitement among startup investors who expect the listing to pave the way for other major companies from the country to follow suit.
Shares of the San Mateo, California-headquartered startup settled at $47.55 Wednesday in New York trading, giving the software maker a $13 billion market value.
Founded in Chennai, Freshworks sold 28.5 million shares at $36 each, a company statement disclosed, up from the marketed range of $32 to $34 the company announced earlier this week.
Majority of the company's engineering personnel is still based in Chennai, Southern India.
Freshworks pumped up its revenue around 40% last year after the global health crisis forced many businesses to go digital, and sales continue to soar in the first six months of 2021 while its net loss declined.
Freshworks helps companies with customer management solutions like call center services and an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot for customer support.
Freshworks is India's popular software-as-a-service, or SaaS, company and it joins a host of other major startups from the country that have gone public this year.
Some of the world's high-profile SaaS companies include Zoom, SAP Concur and Salesforce, the American company that owns workplace messaging app Slack.
The company expects its shares to start trading on Wednesday under the stock symbol FRSH.
"It is hard not to feel great," Gene Frantz, the CapitalG partner who led the Freshworks investment, said in quotes by CNBC.
Bank of America Securities, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters for the Freshworks IPO.
With 52,500 customers, Freshworks saw its sales balloon in the first half of the current year to almost $170 million, up from $110 million in the first half of last year. The company's net loss fell to $9.8 million from $57 million from a year ago, its filing shows.
"I feel like an Indian athlete who has won a gold medal in the Olympics," Girish Mathrubootham, co-founder and chief executive officer of Freshworks, said before ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq.
