Introducing Freshworks ($FRSH)

About

Freshworks (FRSH) freshworks.com is a SaaS company that offers anything and everything that has to do with the customers as well as the employees of a company. They are set to go public tomorrow, September 22, with an estimated market cap of around $9 billion and a price tag of $32-$34 per share.

Products

To “delight” (as they put it) the customers of a company they offer solutions for customer support (Freshdesk) and sales & marketing (Freshsales). To “delight” the employees of a company they offer solutions for IT service management (Freshservice) as well as HR management (Freshteam).

From the S-1 https://sec.report/Document/0001628280-21-017717/ “We provide businesses of all sizes with modern SaaS products that are designed with the user in mind. We started with Freshdesk, our customer experience product, then later expanded our offering to include Freshservice, our IT service management products, and expanded our product offering to include more complete customer relationship management solutions, which includes salesforce and marketing automation.”

The story

The company was founded back in 2010 in India by CEO/Founder Rathna Girish. He owns 7% of the company and his vision is a new product experience that breaks down data silos and creates unified experiences. In his words: “Freshworks is the company that wasn’t supposed to win." However, even though there is fierce competition, they managed to do well.

This is what they are after now: “Now, our dream is to be a disruptive player in the CRM market by breaking down the silos of marketing, sales, and customer support with a unified customer cloud.”

And his long-term goal is: “And in the future, we dream of breaking the silos of IT and HR, building a unified employee cloud.”

The numbers

Revenue in millions


2019 36 39 45 50
2020 53 56 66 73
2021 80 88

Revenue growth YoY

 
2020 47% 43% 46% 46%
2021 50% 57% **accelerating**

Revenue growth QoQ

 
2019     8%  15% 11%
2020 6%  5%  17% 10%
2021 9%  10%

Gross margin


2019 79%
2020 79%
FH21 79% **steady**

Net dollar retention rate


2019 115%
2020 111%
FH21 118% **improving**

Free cash flow in millions


2019 (22)
2020  23
FH21  3

Loss from operations


2019 (17%)
2020 (22%)
FH21 (4%) **improving**

Customers (thousands) with more than $5,000 in ARR


2019             8.5
2020  9.1   9.8  10.7  11.5
2021  12.3  13.3

Thoughts

Numbers seem to accelerate. The industry is pretty crowded. However, Freshworks tries to bring in an all-in-one solution and break up the fragmented process. Will they succeed?

Useful links

Website www.freshworks.com
S-1 https://sec.report/Document/0001628280-21-017717/
Investors https://www.freshworks.com/company/investors/
Glassdoor glassdoor.com/Reviews/Freshworks-Reviews-E1680273.htm
TMF video fool.com/investing/2021/09/19/what-is-freshworks-all-about/

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Thanks for sharing this. While it appears to be a great product and the company seems to be executing well, I can de see the current valuation is on par if not higher than well established incumbents like PEGA and ZEN. EV/S reflects a high valuation also. Being a recent IPO, at this valuation I would advise to wait for a few months.

I’d be curious of other members take on it anyway as it checks a lot of boxes for being on this board.

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I was keeping an eye on their results today as it’s their first quarterly results after the IPO
Revenue in millions
2019 36 39 45 50
2020 53 56 66 73
2021 80 88 96.5

Revenue growth YoY
2020 47% 43% 46% 46%
2021 50% 57% 46%

Revenue growth QoQ
2019 8% 15% 11%
2020 6% 5% 17% 10%
2021 9% 10% 9%

Gross margin
2019 79%
2020 79%
FH21 79%
Reported qtr 77%

Net dollar retention rate
2019 115%
2020 111%
FH21 118%
Reported qtr 117%

Customers (thousands) with more than $5,000 in ARR
2019 8.5
2020 9.1 9.8 10.7 11.5
2021 12.3 13.3 14.1

Thoughts
Results were not so fresh as the numbers seem to be decelerating

https://ir.freshworks.com/news-releases/news-release-details…

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