Freshworks becomes first Unicorn to overturn losses; reports Rs 21 crore profit in FY18

Last financial year was eventful for B2B SaaS company Freshworks as it went through rebranding and joined the coveted league of Unicorn. However, it’s a different kind of Unicorn. Where not a single firm that has valuation of $1 billion or more is anywhere close to profitability, Freshworks has turned profitable in FY18.

The San Bruno cum Chennai-based company has recorded a revenue of Rs 259.29 crore in FY18. It’s a 30 per cent increase from the preceding fiscal when its revenue stood at Rs 199.62 crore. Importantly, the company has posted a profit for the very first time, reveals RoC filings with MCA.

Freshworks has reported a profit of Rs 20.91 crore in FY18. In FY17, the company had lost Rs 6.33 crore. With 30 per cent jump, the company has recorded Rs 254.37 crore worth operational revenue in FY18. Operational revenue stood at Rs 195.78 crore in FY17.

The overall expenditure for the company stood at Rs 226.44 crore. Employee benefits expense accounted for the largest expenditure of Rs 171.9 crore.

For the uninitiated, Freshworks offers a slew of software tools including CRM for sales, customer support software, and IT management among others meant for businesses. Currently, the company uses over 1,50,000 organisations including Cisco, Toshiba, Honda, and Hugo Boss.

In July last year, the company raised $100 million round co-led by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. It was valued at $1.5 billion in this Series G  financing round. Around the same time, it also hired AppDynamics Vice President of Finance & Treasury Suresh Seshadri as its Chief Financial Officer.

Since its inception in 2010, the company has acquired eight companies including Airwoot, Framebench, Konotor, Frilp. Last year, it took over Joe Hukum, a platform that helps businesses to build their own chatbots.

Freshworks primarily competes with the likes of Zendesk and Salesforce among a slew of others. While Unicorns are notorious for burning a lot of capital without focusing on profitability, Freshworks has turned out to be an outlier.