Storied SaaS unicorn Freshworks, has received fresh capital from existing backer Steadview Capital, through a secondary transaction. The London-based VC Firm has put in close to $85 Million in the company, according to a confirmed report published today in the Economic Times.
This fundraise comes after Freshworks’ November 2019 raise of $150 Million led by its existing investors, which valued it at about $3.5 billion. The current Steadview investment will also result in sizeable exits for a few of Freshworks’ early angel investors. For Steadview, this was the ninth such investment in an Indian Unicorn. The firm counts Ola, Policybazaar among others as rest of its investments.
The deal comes days after Freshworks announced its third acquisition of the year, as it looks to diversify from its core cloud business to new-age tech domains. The company acquired Flint, an IT orchestration startup from India, for an undisclosed amount.
COVID-19 has, like for most other companies, played a significant role in Freshworks’ increased acquisition and expansion activity this year. Freshworks CPO Prakash Ramamurthy had said earlier that while the company was already planning to expand its platter of services, Coronavirus incentivized it to make drastic changes, as early as possible. Its plans of refining its IT services (ITSM) and operations management (ITOM) capabilities have now been fast tracked, with many businesses operating remotely throughout the world.
