SaaS Unicorn Freshworks Acquires Design Collaboration Tool CanvasFlip

SaaS unicorn Freshworks has acquired Bengaluru-based design collaboration tool CanvasFlip in a cash and equity deal. Post-acquisition, CanvasFlip’s website feedback management tool, Visual Inspector, will continue to be available in Chrome Webstore. However, its prototyping and collaboration solutions will be discontinued.

CanvasFlip was founded by Vipul Misra and Manish Jha in 2015. The company built various products to enable easy collaboration between product designers, developers, and product managers. The company claims to have clients such as Paytm, MakeMyTrip, MagicBricks, Accenture UK, TechMahindra and more. 

The Bengaluru-based company was part of the multiple accelerator programs including TLABS, Microsoft Venture, and Google blackbox. Earlier in 2015, CanvasFlip raised funding from Silicon-valley based VC Bessemer Venture Partners and angel investors such as Fusionchart founder Nadhani and Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham. 

Freshworks Readies Stack Before IPO

Founded by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, Freshworks claims to have over 150K clients worldwide using the Freshworks software product suites, including leading companies such as Toshiba, and Cisco, among others. 

The company entered the unicorn club in 2018, after raising a $100 Mn funding round from Sequoia, Accel Partners, and CapitalG at a valuation of $1.5 Bn.

In May 2019, the SaaS company also acquired a customer success management software Natero for an undisclosed amount. In a media statement, Freshworks said that the acquisition will help the company put actionable data in the hands of customer success professionals through Natero’s artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms.

Later in July,  Freshworks was reported to be planning an initial public offering (IPO) by 2021. The listing is expected to be on New York-headquartered stock exchange, NASDAQ.

As a SaaS unicorn, Freshworks directly competes with majors such as Zoho and Icertis. According to NASSCOM, India’s software as a service (SaaS) market is expected to grow 36% annually and touch $3.3-$3.4 Bn by 2022. This growth is expected because of cheaper workforce, abundant talent, mature sales ecosystem, and adoption of deeptech technologies in the country.

Further, according to DataLabs by Inc42, in the period between January 2014 and June 2018, Indian SaaS startups raised $2.79 Bn across 520 deals.