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makes software that does a lot for businesses. Founded in 2010, formerly under the name Freshdesk, the company now known as Freshworks offers cloud-based tools for sales management, recruiting, customer engagement, workplace chat, virtual call center infrastructure, and its original online help desk product. These are made available on a subscription basis both as a bundle and 脿 la carte.

Today Freshworks announced two pieces of news: one regarding new funding and the other involves a new strategic hire.

Freshworks has raised $100 million in a Series G funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation, post-money, according to a spokesperson for the company. and led the round, which also saw participation from , the (quite active) growth equity investment arm of tech conglomerate . In conjunction with the capital raised across six previous rounds since the end of 2011, this financing brings Freshworks鈥檚 total venture funding to $250 million.

The company鈥檚 last round, announced in November 2016, valued the company at $700 million, post-money, according to 兔子先生传媒 data. So in nearly two years, Freshworks managed to double its valuation and join the increasingly-crowded unicorn club.

In a statement provided by the company, , Freshworks鈥檚 co-founder and CEO, disclosed the company鈥檚 current revenue and user figures. Freshworks has 鈥�$100 million in annual recurring revenue鈥� and now serves 鈥渙ver 150,000 organizations,鈥� including the NHS, Honda, Hugo Boss, Toshiba, and Cisco, among others, according to the executive.

Running on the assumption that these figures are current as of the tail-end of July 2018, we can back out some growth figures from prior disclosures from the company.

• In November 2016, when the company announced its Series F round, that the company 鈥渉as 100,000 customers, mostly small-to-medium size businesses.鈥� In the nearly two years since its Series F, the raw count of Freshworks鈥檚 customers grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 percent. At the same time, it appears that Freshworks added several big-name customers to its roles, presumably bringing in more revenue apiece than small-business customers.
• An August 2017 suggested that Freshworks pulled in 鈥渦pwards of $50 million for FY16, with the Indian operations likely contributing close to 30%.鈥� The VC Circle report also cites an article in India-focused tech publication Factor Daily which said Freshworks鈥檚 鈥渃onsolidated revenues are likely to have grown to $70 million for FY17.鈥�
• In another interview with VC Circle, this time , CEO Girish Mathrubootham declined to disclose certain revenue specifics (like average revenue per user, or ARPU). 鈥淎ll I can say is that we have been registering 70% year-on-year growth over the last two years,鈥� Mathrubootham offered before continuing, 鈥淸as] for ARPU, I can only say that Freshdesk generates three times more ARPU than most of our other products.鈥�

Between substantial growth in user counts, an overall improving quality of revenue, and prior statements about company growth, it鈥檚 safe to say that if Freshworks isn鈥檛 currently valued at $1 billion or more, it is close to it.

In addition to the new funding, Freshworks also announced that it鈥檚 brought on Suresh Seshadri 鈥� formerly the vice president of finance and treasury at AppDynamics 鈥� as its chief financial officer. Seshadri helped AppDynamics prepare for its initial public offering, according to a statement from Freshworks.

鈥淐oming on board to work with Girish [Mathrubootham] and the rest of the executive team is an incredible opportunity, and I am confident that we are well-positioned to reach the next phase of Freshworks鈥� expansion.鈥�

Freshworks鈥檚 nine-figure funding round closes out a record month of supergiant round announcements. In July 2018, about fifty rounds topped out at $100 million or more, with some extending well past $1 billion. It鈥檚 a pattern which started years ago, and it has been amplified by firms like Sequoia and others that have raised huge new funds to feed capital-hungry companies.

Freshworks鈥檚 path to IPO may be paved with another hundred million dollars, but whether it succeeds in not just taking off from its extended runway, but becoming a soaring SaaS success, is not certain.