Freshworks (FRSH) S-1/AIPO registration (amended)

Neither we nor any of the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared. Neither we nor any of the underwriters take any responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our Class A common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future growth prospects may have changed since that date.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our Class A common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

We have incurred net losses in each fiscal year since our founding. We generated net losses of $31.1 million and $57.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively, and $57.1 million and $9.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively. As of June 30, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $3.1 billion. We do not expect to be profitable in the near future, and while we achieved profitability for one quarter in 2020, we cannot assure you that we will achieve profitability again in the future or that, if we do become profitable, we will sustain profitability. Any failure by us to achieve and sustain profitability could cause the value of our Class A common stock to decline. These losses reflect, among other things, the significant investments we made to develop and commercialize our products, serve our existing customers, and broaden our customer base.

As a result of expected investments and expenditures related to the growth of our business, we may experience increasing losses in future periods and these losses may be significantly greater than the losses we would incur if we developed our business more slowly. In addition, we may find that these efforts are more expensive than we currently anticipate or that they may not result in increases in our revenue.

We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods. Even if our revenue continues to increase, we expect that our revenue growth rate may decline in the future as a result of a variety of factors, including the maturation of our business. Further, as we operate in a rapidly changing industry, widespread acceptance and use of our products are critical to our future growth and success. We believe our revenue growth depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, our ability to:

We may not successfully accomplish any of these objectives, and as a result, it is difficult for us to forecast our future results of operations. If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it may be difficult to achieve (or, if achieved, maintain) profitability. You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual periods as any indication of our future revenue or revenue growth.

In addition, in order to fuel our growth, we expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on:

These investments may not result in increased revenue in our business. If we are unable to maintain or increase our revenue at a rate sufficient to offset the expected increase in our costs, our business, financial position, and results of operations will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability. Additionally, we may encounter unforeseen operating expenses, difficulties, complications, delays, and other unknown factors that may result in losses in future periods. If our revenue does not meet our expectations in future periods, our business, financial position, and results of operations may be harmed.

We have been growing rapidly in recent periods and, as a result, have a relatively short history operating our business at its current scale. The growth and expansion of our business and products may place a significant strain on our management and our operational and financial resources. As we grow and expand, we will need to continue to successfully manage a variety of relationships with partners, customers, and other third parties. We must continue to improve and expand our information technology and financial infrastructure, our security and compliance requirements, our operating and administrative systems, our relationships with various partners and other third parties, and our ability to manage headcount and processes in an efficient manner to manage our growth effectively.

Furthermore, we operate in an industry that is characterized by rapid technological innovation, intense competition, changing customer needs, and frequent introductions of new products, technologies, and services. We may not be able to sustain the pace of improvements to our products successfully or implement systems, processes, and controls in an efficient or timely manner or in a manner that does not negatively affect our results of operations. Our failure to improve our systems, processes, and controls, or their failure to operate in the intended manner, may result in our inability to manage the growth of our business, forecast our revenue, expenses, and earnings accurately, or prevent losses.

We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in evolving industries. In addition, our future growth rate is subject to a number of uncertainties, such as general economic and market conditions, including those caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change

We track certain key business metrics that may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties due to differences in sources, methodologies, or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools are subject to a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose. For example, our designations of customers as “small- and mid-sized businesses,” “mid-market” or “enterprise” are based on third-party reporting which may be inaccurate. In addition, our estimates of number of total customers may be impacted by mergers or acquisitions of such customers or such customers purchasing our products via resellers. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our products are used across large populations globally.

Limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. If our key business metrics are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive these metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly harmed, our stock price could decline, we may be subject to stockholder litigation, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

A significant part of our business strategy and culture is to focus on long-term growth and customer success over short-term financial results. For example, in 2020, we increased our operating expenses to $253.2 million as compared to $165.6 million in 2019, while continuing to generate a net loss of $57.3 million in 2020. We expect that we will continue to operate at a loss, and our profitability may be lower than it would be if our strategy were to maximize near-term profitability. If we are ultimately unable to achieve or improve profitability at the level or during the time frame anticipated by securities or industry analysts and our stockholders, the trading price of our Class A common stock may decline.

Our quarterly results of operations, including the levels of our revenue, deferred revenue, working capital, and cash flows, may vary significantly in the future, such that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful. Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including, but not limited to:

Any one or more of the factors above may result in significant fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations, which may negatively impact the trading price of our Class A common stock. You should not rely on our past results as an indicator of our future performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control its spread have significantly curtailed the movement of people, goods, and services worldwide. As a result, we have temporarily closed our headquarters and most of our other offices, enabled our employees and contractors to work remotely, implemented travel restrictions, and shifted company events and meetings to virtual-only experiences, all of which may continue for an indefinite amount of time and represent a significant disruption in how we operate our business, including a loss of productivity both in the United States and in India, where we have significant operations. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread or if there are further waves of the virus, we may need to further limit operations or modify our business practices in a manner that may impact our business. If our employees are not able to perform their job duties due to self-isolation, quarantine, travel restrictions, or illness, or are unable to perform them as efficiently at home for an extended period of time, we may not be able to deliver on our business priorities, and we may experience an overall lower productivity of our workforce.

We continue to monitor our operations and public health measures implemented by governmental authorities both here and abroad in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some public health measures have eased and a small portion of our employees have returned to work in certain offices for a brief period, our efforts to reopen our offices safely may not be successful and could expose our employees to health risks. For example, when the number of cases of COVID-19 in India substantially increased in early March 2021, our offices in India, which had

While the duration and extent of the COVID-19 pandemic depends on future developments that cannot be accurately predicted at this time, including the availability and efficient distribution and administration of vaccines, it has already had an adverse effect on the global economy, and the ultimate societal and economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown. In particular, the conditions caused by this pandemic have affected the rate of global IT spending, which could adversely affect demand for our products. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to experience, in some cases, an increase in certain prospective and current customers seeking lower prices or other more favorable contract terms, and has limited the ability of our direct sales force to travel to customers and potential customers. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact with our customers and prospective customers. We have altered, postponed, or canceled planned customer, employee, and industry events or shifted them to a virtual only format, and we may continue to do so. Our operating results may also suffer if sales and marketing personnel are unable to maintain the same level of productivity while working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent hires and planned hires may also not become productive as quickly as we expect during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we serve many businesses, particularly small to medium-sized businesses, that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of our customers, particularly customers that are small businesses in the travel, hospitality, entertainment, or retail industries, were particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a number of them even went out of business or reduced their subscriptions significantly as a result of their businesses downsizing. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced elevated churn and lower overall revenue in 2020 from customers in these industries. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it could reduce the value or duration of subscriptions, negatively affect our collections of accounts receivable, reduce spending from our customers, cause some of our customers to go out of business, and increase contraction or attrition rates of our customers, all of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Additionally, concerns over the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused extreme volatility in financial and other capital markets, which may in the future adversely affect our stock price and our ability to access capital markets in the future.

While we have developed and continue to develop plans to help mitigate the potential negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, these efforts may not be effective, and any protracted economic downturn will likely limit the effectiveness of our efforts. There may be additional costs or impacts to our business and operations, including when we are able to return to our offices and resume in-person activities, travel, and events. In addition, there is no guarantee that a future outbreak of this or any other widespread epidemics will not occur, or that the global economy will recover, either of which could seriously harm our business. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic on our business, operations, or the global economy as a whole remains highly uncertain. Accordingly, it is not possible for us to predict the duration and extent to which this will affect our business, including productivity of our employees in the United States and in India, future results of operations, and financial condition at this time.

To increase our revenue and achieve profitability, we must increase our customer base through various methods, including but not limited to, adding new customers, converting customers using our free trial versions into paying customers, and expanding usage within and across organizations within existing customers. We encourage customers on our free trial version to upgrade to paid subscription plans and customers of our base level paid plans to upgrade to plans with more features and to incorporate add-ons. Additionally, we seek to expand within organizations by adding new users, having organizations upgrade their plans, or expanding their use of our products into other departments within the organization. While we have experienced significant growth in the number of customers on our products, we do not know whether we will continue to achieve similar customer growth rates in the future. Numerous factors may impede our ability to add new customers, convert customers using our free trial versions into paying customers, expand usage within organizations, and sell subscriptions to our products, including but not limited to, our failure to attract, retain, and effectively train and motivate new sales and marketing personnel, develop or expand relationships with our partners, compete effectively against alternative products or services,

In addition, because many of our new customers originate from word-of-mouth and other non-paid referrals from existing customers, we must ensure that our existing customers continue using our products in order for us to benefit from those referrals.

Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to continually enhance and improve our products and the features, integrations, and capabilities we offer, and to introduce compelling new features, integrations, and capabilities that reflect the changing nature of our market. Accordingly, we must continue to invest in research and development and in our ongoing efforts to improve and enhance our products. The success of any enhancement to our products depends on several factors, including timely completion and delivery, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies, and overall market acceptance. Any new features, integrations, and capabilities that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs, or may not achieve the market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue.

Additionally, we rely on third parties to develop products that are complementary to ours in order to retain existing customers and attract new customers. In order for such complementary products to enhance our customers' use of our products, we must maintain interoperability as described further below.

We generally recognize subscription revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their contracts, and a majority of our revenue is derived from subscriptions that have terms longer than one month. As a result, a portion of the revenue we report each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions with terms that are longer than one month in any single quarter may have a small impact on our revenue for that quarter. However, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our products, and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of expansion or retention, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. We may also be unable to reduce our operating expenses in a timely fashion if our revenues were to significantly decline. In addition, because we believe a substantial percentage of subscriptions to our solutions are shorter than many comparable SaaS companies and because we have many variations of billing cycles, our deferred revenue may be a less meaningful indicator of our future financial results as compared to other SaaS companies. A significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while revenue is recognized over the life of the agreement with the applicable customer.

Our business is subscription based, and customers are not obligated to and may not renew their subscriptions after their existing subscriptions expire. In order for us to maintain or improve our operating results, it is important that our customers renew their subscriptions when the initial contract term expires and add additional users to their subscriptions. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions, and we cannot ensure that customers will renew subscriptions with a similar contract period, with the same or greater number of users, or for the same or upgraded level of subscription plan. Customers may or may not renew their subscription plans as a result of a number of factors, including their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our products, our pricing or pricing structure, the pricing or capabilities of the products and services offered by our competitors, the effects of general economic conditions, or customers’ budgetary constraints. If customers do not renew their subscriptions, renew on less favorable terms, or fail to add more users, or if we fail to upgrade trial customers to our paid subscription plans, or expand the adoption of our products within and across organizations, our revenue may decline or grow less quickly

The market for customer experience (CX), IT service management (ITSM), and customer relationship management (CRM) products is rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive, fragmented, and subject to rapidly changing technology, shifting user and customer needs, new market entrants, and frequent introductions of new products and services. We compete with a significant number of companies that range in size from large and diversified enterprises with significant financial resources to smaller companies. These competitors developed or are developing products and services that currently, or in the future may, compete with some or all of our offerings.

Within CX, we primarily face competition from CX suites, such as Salesforce and Zendesk, and legacy vendors, such as Oracle and SAP. Within ITSM, we primarily face competition from traditional vendors, such as ServiceNow, BMC, Ivanti/Cherwell, and modern pure-play vendors, such as Atlassian. Within CRM, we primarily face competition from full-featured vendors, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics, and legacy vendors, such as Oracle, SAP, and Sage.

Many of our current and potential competitors may have longer operating histories, greater brand name recognition, stronger and more extensive partner relationships, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources, lower labor and development costs, and larger customer bases than we do. These competitors may invest and engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns, and adopt more aggressive pricing policies that will allow them to build larger customer bases than we have. Our competitors may also offer their products and services at a lower price, or, particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, may offer price concessions, delayed payment terms, financing terms, or other terms and conditions that are more enticing to potential customers.

The market for our products is rapidly evolving and highly competitive, with relatively low barriers to entry, and in the future there will likely be an increasing number of similar products offered by additional competitors. Large companies we do not currently consider to be competitors may enter the market, through acquisitions or through innovation and expansion of their existing products, to compete with us either directly or indirectly. Further, our potential and existing competitors may make acquisitions or enter into strategic relationships and rapidly acquire significant market share due to a larger customer base, superior product offering, more effective sales and marketing operations, or greater financial, technical, and other resources.

Any one of these competitive pressures in our market, or our failure to compete effectively, may result in price reductions; fewer customers; reduced revenue, gross profit, and gross margin; increased net losses; and loss of market share. Any failure to meet and address these factors would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Moreover, large customers may demand greater price concessions or other more favorable terms.

Our ability to expand usage of our products within our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance among organizations will depend to an extent on our ability to expand our sales operations successfully, particularly our direct sales efforts targeted at broadening use of our products across departments and entire organizations. We

To date, our product-led sales growth has primarily depended on word-of-mouth, online marketing, and our direct sales force to sell subscriptions to our products. Although we have developed relationships with approximately 400 channel partners, these channels have resulted in limited revenue to date. We believe that continued growth in our business is dependent upon identifying, developing, and maintaining strategic relationships with additional channel partners that can drive substantial revenue. Our agreements with our existing channel partners are non-exclusive, so our channel partners may offer customers the products of several different companies, including products that compete with ours. They may also cease marketing our products with limited or no notice and without penalty. We expect that any additional channel partners we identify and develop will be similarly non-exclusive and not bound by any requirement to continue to market our products. If we fail to identify additional channel partners in a timely and cost-effective manner, or at all, or are unable to assist our current and future channel partners in independently selling and deploying our CX products or live chat software, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected. If our channel partners do not effectively market and sell our products, or fail to meet the needs of our customers, our reputation and ability to grow our business may also be adversely affected.

Our success depends largely upon the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key personnel. From time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives and key employees, which could disrupt our business. Our senior management and key employees are employed on an at-will basis. We currently do not have “key person” insurance on any of our employees. The loss of key personnel, including Rathna Girish Mathrubootham, our Chief Executive Officer, and other key members of management, may cause disruptions in, and harm to, our operations and have an adverse effect on our ability to grow our business and our results of operations and financial condition.

To execute our business model, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for executive officers, software engineers, sales personnel, and other key personnel in our industry and in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters is located, in India where our engineering, product, and inside sales resources are concentrated, and in other locations where we maintain offices, is intense. As we become a more mature company, we may find our recruiting efforts more challenging. The incentives to attract, retain, and motivate employees provided by our equity awards, or by other compensation arrangements, may not be as effective as in the past. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. In addition, to remain competitive in India, we must maintain our reputation as a premier employer in India, including by providing competitive wages and benefits. Our recruiting efforts may also be limited by laws and regulations, such as restrictive immigration laws, and restrictions on travel or availability of visas particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. If we do not succeed in attracting highly qualified personnel or retaining or motivating existing personnel, we may be unable to support our continued growth.

We collect, receive, access, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, share, make accessible, protect, secure, and dispose of (collectively, Process or Processing) a large amount of information from our users, customers, and our own employees, including personally identifiable and other sensitive and confidential information necessary to operate our business, for legal and marketing purposes, and for other business-related purposes. We rely on information technology networks and systems and data Processing (some of which are managed or operated by third-party service providers) to Process such data, and this data is often accessed through transmissions over public and private networks, including the internet. These information technology networks and systems, and the Processing they perform, may be susceptible to damage, disruptions, or shutdowns, software or hardware vulnerabilities, security incidents, ransomware attacks, social engineering attacks, supply-chain attacks, failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software, databases, or components, power outages, fires, natural disasters, hardware failures, computer viruses, attacks by computer hackers, telecommunication failures, user errors (including non-employees who may have authorized access to our networks), user malfeasance, or catastrophic events. While we and our third-party service providers have implemented security measures, technical controls, and contractual precautions designed to identify, detect, and prevent unauthorized Processing of our data, our security measures, as well as those of our third-party service providers, could fail or may be insufficient, resulting in the unauthorized access to or the disclosure, modification, misuse, unavailability, destruction, or loss of our or our customers’ data or other sensitive information. Any such security breach, material disruption of, or damage to, our operational systems, physical facilities, or data Processing activities, or the systems of our third-party partners, or the perception that one has occurred, could result in a loss of customer confidence in the security of our platform and damage to our brand, reduce the demand for our offering, disrupt business operations, result in the exfiltration of proprietary data and information, including source code, require us to spend material resources to investigate or correct the breach and to prevent future security breaches and incidents, expose us to legal liabilities, including litigation, regulatory enforcement and indemnity obligations, claims by our customers or other relevant parties that we have failed to comply with contractual obligations to implement specified security measures, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Despite our efforts to ensure the security, privacy, integrity, confidentiality, availability, and authenticity of our Processing, information, and information technology networks and systems, we may not be able to anticipate or implement effective preventive and remedial measures against all data security and privacy threats. No security solution, strategy, or measures can address all possible security threats or block all methods of penetrating a network or otherwise perpetrating a security incident. The risk of unauthorized circumvention of our security measures or those of our third-party providers, customers, and partners has been heightened by advances in computer and software capabilities and the increasing sophistication of hackers who employ complex techniques, including without limitation, the theft or misuse of personal and financial information, counterfeiting, “phishing” or social engineering incidents, ransomware, extortion, publicly announcing security breaches and revealing information obtained during such security breaches, account takeover attacks, denial or degradation of service attacks, malware, fraudulent payment, and identity theft. Because the techniques used by hackers change frequently, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventive measures to protect against them. Our applications, systems, networks, software, and physical facilities could have material vulnerabilities, be breached, or personal or confidential information could be otherwise compromised due to employee error or malfeasance, if, for example, third parties attempt to fraudulently induce our personnel or our customers to disclose information or user names and/or passwords, or otherwise compromise the security of our networks, systems, and/or physical facilities. Third parties may also exploit vulnerabilities in, or obtain unauthorized access to, platforms, software, applications, systems, networks, sensitive information, and/or physical facilities utilized by our vendors. Breaches of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers or cyber security incidents could result in unauthorized access to our sites, networks, systems, and accounts; unauthorized access to, and misappropriation of, individuals’ personal information or other confidential or proprietary information of ourselves, our customers, or other third parties; viruses, worms, spyware, or other malware being served from our products, mobile applications, networks, or systems; deletion or modification of content or the display of unauthorized content in our products; interruption,

In addition, any actual or perceived compromise or breach of our security measures, or those of our third-party service providers, could violate applicable privacy, data protection, data security, network and information systems security, and other laws, and cause significant legal and financial exposure, adverse publicity, and a loss of confidence in our security measures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We continue to devote significant resources to protect against security breaches, and we may need to devote significant resources in the future to address problems caused by breaches, including notifying affected customers and responding to any resulting litigation, which in turn, diverts resources from the growth and expansion of our business.

Actual or anticipated security breaches or attacks may cause us to incur increasing costs, including costs to deploy additional personnel and protection technologies, train employees and engage third-party experts and consultants. Furthermore, any such breach, including a breach of the systems or networks of our third-party providers, could compromise our systems or networks, creating system outages, disruptions or slowdowns and exploiting security vulnerabilities of our networks. In addition, the information stored on our network or the networks of our third-party providers could be accessed, publicly disclosed, altered, lost or stolen, which could subject us to liability and cause us financial harm. A breach of the security measures of one of our third-party providers could result in the destruction, modification or exfiltration of confidential corporate information or other data that may provide additional avenues of attack. These breaches, or any perceived breach, of our systems or networks or the systems or networks of our third-party providers, whether or not any such breach is due to a vulnerability in our platform, may also undermine confidence in us or our industry and result in damage to our reputation, negative publicity, loss of users, partners and sales, increased remediation costs, and costly litigation or regulatory fines. For example in April 2021, we became aware that a third-party vendor that provided us with SaaS software code testing, Codecov, discovered instances of unauthorized access to its software, whereby a threat actor was able to cause such software to be modified allowing for the export of information of Codecov customers stored in continuous integration environments. The Codecov incident has affected hundreds of companies using their services, including us. Through our investigation, we determined that the threat actor was able to obtain access to credentials in our development environment and thereby gain access to, and copy, our source code and a limited amount of customer information. Upon learning of the Codecov incident, we engaged in a number of preventative actions, including rotating all of our credentials identified as exposed by the Codecov incident to prevent further unauthorized access, analyzing available logs to determine whether there was evidence that the exposed credentials were leveraged to gain access to Freshworks systems or systems of our customers, and engaging a third-party forensics firm to assist in our investigation, response, and impact mitigation. Throughout our investigations into this incident, our senior management team and our board of directors were informed, engaged, and updated. We have concluded our investigations and found that a limited amount of customer information, including some business

The costs to respond to a security breach and/or to mitigate any security vulnerabilities that may be identified could be significant, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service, and other harm to our business and our competitive position. We could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices in response to a security breach or incident, or related regulatory actions or litigation, which could have an adverse effect on our business. We may not have adequate insurance coverage for security incidents or breaches, including fines, judgments, settlements, penalties, costs, attorney fees and other impacts that arise out of incidents or breaches. If the impacts of a security incident or breach, or the successful assertion of one or more large claims against us exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), it could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, we cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage, cyber coverage, and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to all or part of any future claim or loss (including, for example, as a result of the payment of ransomware) or that our insurance premiums will not increase as a result of any claims. Our risks are likely to increase as we continue to expand, grow our customer base, and process increasingly large amounts of proprietary and sensitive data.

Additionally, policing unauthorized use of our know-how, technology and intellectual property is difficult and may not be effective. Although we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and entering into confidentiality agreements with the parties with whom we share our confidential information, such parties may not comply with their confidentiality obligations under these agreements. These agreements also may not effectively grant all necessary rights to any inventions that may have been developed by the employees or consultants party thereto and may not be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our platform, technology and confidential information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use of our platform or technology or unauthorized access, use or disclosure of our confidential information. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our platform or technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products or services that compete with our offerings. Some of the provisions of our agreements that protect us against unauthorized use, copying, transfer and disclosure of our platform may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to ours. We cannot guarantee that others will not independently develop technology with the same or similar functions to any proprietary technology we rely on to conduct our business and differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to copy or obtain and use our technology to develop applications with the same functionality as our solutions. In connection with the Codecov incident, the threat actor was able to export a copy of our source code which, if disseminated, may enable unauthorized third parties to develop such applications more easily. Any unauthorized disclosure or use of our trade secrets or other confidential proprietary information could make it more expensive to do business, thereby harming our operating results.

We may experience system slowdowns and interruptions from time to time. In addition, continued growth in our customer base could place additional demands on our products and could cause or exacerbate slowdowns or

Moreover, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the vast majority of our cloud computing infrastructure that we use to host our products, mobile applications, and many of the internal tools we use to operate our business. We have a long-term commitment with AWS pursuant to a commercial agreement, and our products, mobile applications, and internal tools use computing, storage capabilities, bandwidth, and other services provided by AWS. Our commercial agreement with AWS will remain in effect until terminated by AWS or us. We may terminate the agreement for convenience by providing AWS prior written notice, and AWS may terminate the agreement for convenience by providing at least two years’ prior written notice. Either party may terminate the agreement for cause upon a breach of the agreement, subject to such terminating party providing prior written notice and a 30-day cure period. AWS may also terminate the agreement for cause (i) if our products pose certain security or liability risks, subject to AWS providing prior written notice and a 90-day cure period or (ii) in order to comply with applicable law or requirements of government entities, subject to AWS providing prior written notice and a 30-day cure period. Any significant disruption of, limitation of our access to, or other interference with our use of AWS would negatively affect our operations and could seriously harm our business. In addition, any transition of the cloud services currently provided by AWS to another cloud services provider would require significant time and expense and could disrupt or degrade delivery of our products. Our business relies on the availability of our products for our users and customers, and we may lose users or customers if they are not able to access our products or encounter difficulties in doing so. The level of service provided by AWS could affect the availability or speed of our products, which may also impact the usage of, and our customers’ satisfaction with, our products and could seriously harm our business and reputation. If AWS increases pricing terms, terminates or seeks to terminate our contractual relationship, establishes more favorable relationships with our competitors, or changes or interprets its terms of service or policies in a manner that is unfavorable with respect to us, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed.

In addition, we rely on hardware and infrastructure purchased or leased from third parties and software and SaaS products licensed from third parties to operate critical business functions. Our business would be disrupted if any of this third-party hardware, software, and infrastructure becomes unavailable on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Furthermore, delays or complications with respect to the transition of critical business functions from one third-party product to another, or any errors or defects in third-party hardware, software, or infrastructure could result in errors or a failure of our products, which could harm our business and results of operations.

Our products integrate with a variety of hardware and software platforms and SaaS products and technologies, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products to adapt to changes in hardware, software, and browser technologies. In particular, we have developed our products to be able to easily integrate with third-party applications, including the applications of software providers (some of which compete with us) as well as our partners, through the interaction of APIs. In general, we rely on the providers of such software systems to allow us access to their APIs to enable these integrations. We are typically subject to standard terms and conditions of such providers, which govern the distribution, operation, and fees of such software systems, and which are subject to

Third-party services and products are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to modify our products to assure their compatibility with that of all other third parties. In addition, some of our competitors may be able to disrupt the operations or compatibility of our products with their products or services, or exert strong business influence on our ability to, and terms on which we, operate our products. Should any of our competitors modify their products or standards in a manner that degrades the functionality of our products or gives preferential treatment to competitive products or services, whether to enhance their competitive position or for any other reason, the interoperability of our products with these products could decrease. If we are not permitted or able to integrate with these and other third-party applications in the future, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed.

Further, certain of our products include a mobile application to enable users to access our products through their mobile devices. If our mobile applications do not perform well, our business will suffer. In addition, our products interoperate with servers, mobile devices, and software applications predominantly through the use of protocols, many of which are created and maintained by third parties. We, therefore, depend on the interoperability of our products with such third-party services, mobile devices, and mobile operating systems, as well as cloud-enabled hardware, software, networking, browsers, database technologies, and protocols that we do not control. The loss of interoperability, whether due to actions of third parties or otherwise, and any changes in technologies that degrade the functionality of our products or give preferential treatment to competitive services could adversely affect adoption and usage of our products. Also, we may not be successful in developing or maintaining relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in ensuring that we operate effectively with a range of operating systems, networks, devices, browsers, protocols, and standards. If we are unable to effectively anticipate and manage these risks, or if it is difficult for customers to access and use our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition may be harmed.

Our success depends in part on our ability to attract users through unpaid internet search results on traditional web search engines such as Google. The number of users we attract to our website from search engines is due in large part to how and where our website ranks in unpaid search results. These rankings can be affected by a number of factors, many of which are not in our direct control, and they may change frequently. For example, a search engine may change its ranking algorithms, methodologies, or design layouts. As a result, links to our website may not be prominent enough to drive traffic to our website, and we may not know how or otherwise be in a position to influence the results. Any reduction in the number of users directed to our website could reduce our revenue or require us to increase our sales and marketing expenditures.

We rely on third parties maintaining open digital marketplaces, including the Apple App Store and Google Play, which make our mobile applications for our Freshdesk (Freshdesk Omnichannel Suite, Freshdesk Support Desk, Freshdesk Messaging, Freshdesk Contact Center, Freshdesk Customer Success), Freshservice, Freshsales, Freshmarketer, Freshsales Suite, and Freshteam products available for download. We cannot assure you that the marketplaces through which we distribute these mobile applications will maintain their current structures or that such marketplaces will not charge us fees to list our application for download. We are also dependent on these third-party marketplaces to enable us and our users to timely update these mobile applications, and to incorporate new features, integrations, and capabilities.

In addition, Apple and Google, among others, for competitive or other reasons, could stop allowing or supporting access to our mobile applications through their products, could allow access for us only at an unsustainable cost, or could make changes to the terms of access in order to make our mobile applications less desirable or harder to access.

The software technology underlying and integrating with our products is inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors. Errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs have in the past, and may in the future, occur in our products, especially when updates are deployed or new features, integrations, or capabilities are rolled out. Any such errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may not be found until after new features, integrations, or capabilities have been released. Furthermore, we will need to ensure that our products can scale to meet the evolving needs of customers, particularly as we increase our focus on larger teams and organizations. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products could result in an interruption in the availability of our products, negative publicity, unfavorable user experience, loss or leaking of personal information and data of organizations, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position, regulatory fines, or claims by organizations for losses sustained by them, all of which would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We currently accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card and debit card, and a large number of our customers authorize us to bill their credit card accounts through our third-party payment processing partners for subscriptions to our products. We are subject to regulations and compliance requirements, such as the payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we (or a third-party processing payment card transactions on our behalf) suffer a security breach affecting payment card information, we may have to pay significant fines, penalties, and assessments arising out of the major card brands’ rules and regulations, contractual indemnifications, or liability contained in merchant agreements and similar contracts, and we may lose our ability to accept payment cards for payment for our goods and services, which could materially impact our operations and financial performance.

If customers pay for their subscription plans with stolen credit cards, we could incur substantial third-party vendor costs for which we may not be reimbursed or be able to recover. Further, our customers provide us with credit card billing information online, and we do not review the physical credit cards used in these transactions, which increases our risk of exposure to fraudulent activity. We also incur chargebacks from the credit card companies for claims that the customer did not authorize the credit card transaction for subscription plans, something that we have experienced in the past. If the number of claims of unauthorized credit card transactions

We generally charge our customers for their use of our products based on the number of users they enable as “agents” under their customer account, as well as the features and functionality enabled. The features and functionality we provide within our solutions enable our customers to promote customer self-service and otherwise efficiently and cost-effectively address product support requests without the need for substantial human interaction. As a result of these features, customer agent staffing requirements may be minimized, and our revenue may be decreased. Conversely, customers may overestimate their agent needs when they initially use our solutions, negatively affecting our ability to accurately forecast the number of agents our customers need in forward periods. We generally also require a separate subscription to enable the functionality of each of our products. We are continuing to analyze and improve our pricing and packaging models as we adapt to a changing market, but we do not know whether our current or potential customers or the market in general will accept changes to those models, and if it fails to gain acceptance, our business and results of operations could be harmed.

If we fail to find an optimal pricing strategy for our products, our business and results of operations may be harmed. If customers do not accept our new purchase plans, we may increasingly have difficulty in attracting new customers, as well as our ability to retain existing customers to the extent we apply new pricing models to existing customer subscriptions. Our pricing model may impact our customer’s pricing decisions and adoption of our subscription plans and negatively impact our overall revenue. In the future we may be required to reduce our prices or develop new pricing models, which could adversely affect our revenue, gross margin, profitability, financial position, and cash flow.

Finally, as the market for our products matures, or as new competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, we may be unable to attract new customers at the same price or based on the same pricing models as we have used historically.

We derive, and expect to continue to derive, substantially all of our revenue from our Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshsales products. As such, the continued growth in market demand for and market acceptance of these products is critical to our continued success. Demand for our products is affected by a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as the rate of adoption of our products within an organization, the timing of development and release of new products by our competitors; the development and acceptance of new features, integrations, and capabilities for our products; price, product, and service changes by us or our competitors; technological changes and developments within the markets we serve; growth, contraction, and rapid evolution of our market; and general economic conditions and trends. If we are unable to continue to meet the demands of users and customers to keep up with trends in preferences for CX, ITSM, or CRM products, or to achieve more widespread market acceptance of our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed. In addition, some current and potential customers, particularly larger organizations, may develop or acquire their own tools or continue to rely on traditional tools and software for their CX, ITSM, or CRM needs, which would reduce or eliminate their demand for our products. If demand for our products declines for any of these or other reasons, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Sales to large customers involve risks that may not be present or that are present to a lesser extent with sales to smaller organizations, such as longer sales cycles, more complex customer requirements, substantial upfront sales costs, and less predictability in completing some of our sales. For example, large customers may require considerable time to evaluate and test our products prior to making a purchase decision. A number of factors influence the length and variability of our sales cycle, including the need to educate potential customers about the uses and benefits of our products, the discretionary nature of purchasing and budget cycles, and the competitive nature of evaluation and purchasing approval processes. As a result, the length of our sales cycle, from identification of the opportunity to deal closure, may vary significantly from customer to customer, with sales to large enterprises typically taking longer to complete. Our typical sale cycle for enterprise and mid-market customers is approximately 90 days, as compared to 30 days for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMB) customers. Moreover, large customers are often more demanding than other customers and begin to deploy our products on a limited basis but nevertheless require implementation services and negotiate pricing discounts or other onerous terms, which increase our upfront investment in the sales effort with no guarantee that sales to these customers will justify our substantial upfront investment, which can affect our roadmaps and deliverables. If we fail to effectively manage these risks associated with sales cycles and sales to large customers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be affected.

We believe that the brand identity that we have developed has significantly contributed to the success of our business with our existing customer base. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing the “Freshworks” brand is critical to expanding our customer base and establishing and maintaining relationships with partners. Successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts and on our ability to ensure that our products remain high-quality, reliable, and useful at competitive prices, as well as with respect to our free trial version. Maintaining and enhancing our brand may require us to make substantial investments, and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain the “Freshworks” brand, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be adversely affected. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brand may become more difficult and expensive.

While we have designed our products to be easy to adopt and use, once users and customers begin using Freshworks, they rely on our support services to resolve any related issues. The importance of high-quality customer support will increase as we expand our business and pursue new customers. For instance, if we do not help organizations using our products quickly resolve issues, our reputation with existing or potential customers will be harmed. Further, our sales are highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from existing customers using our products. Any failure to maintain high-quality customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality customer support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our products to existing and prospective customers, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Additionally, as we continue to expand, we will need to hire additional support personnel to provide efficient product support globally at scale. Any failure to provide such support could harm our reputation.

Market opportunity estimates, and growth forecasts included in this prospectus are subject to significant uncertainty, and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. Not every organization covered by our market opportunity estimates will necessarily buy CX, ITSM, or CRM products, and some or many of those companies may choose to continue using legacy CX, ITSM, or CRM products or other tools offered by our

A substantial portion of our operations and employees are located in India, including a majority of our software engineering resources, and we intend to continue to develop and expand our operations in India. Consequently, our financial performance and the market price of our Class A common stock will be affected by changes in exchange rates and controls, interest rates, changes in government policies, including taxation policies, social and civil unrest, and other political, social, and economic developments in or affecting India.

The Government of India has exercised and continues to exercise significant influence over many aspects of the Indian economy. India has a mixed economy with a large public sector and an extensively regulated private sector. Since 1991, successive Indian governments have generally pursued policies of economic liberalization and financial sector reforms, including by significantly relaxing restrictions on the private sector.

Nevertheless, the role of the Indian central and state governments in the Indian economy as producers, consumers, and regulators has remained significant, and there is no assurance that such liberalization policies will continue. The Government of India and the state governments of India play a significant role in the Indian economy, which has affected producers, consumers, service providers, and regulators over the years. The Government of India has in the past, among other things, imposed controls on the prices of a broad range of goods and services, restricted the ability of businesses to expand existing capacity and reduce the number of their employees, and determined the allocation to businesses of foreign exchange. Increased regulation, changes in existing regulations, or significant changes in India’s policy of economic liberalization may require us to change our business policies and practices. We may not be able to react to such changes promptly or in a cost-effective manner and therefore such changes may increase the cost of providing services to our customers, which would have an adverse effect on our operations and our financial condition and results of operations.

The Government of India had also announced a set of restrictive measures after a nationwide lockdown was first imposed in March 2020 in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series of lockdowns and the changing restrictive measures in various phases during 2020 and 2021 have resulted in a loss in productivity for our Indian employees. There is no assurance that employee productivity will improve or that we will be able to comply with all of the measures on a timely and cost-effective basis. If we are unable to comply with these measures on a timely basis, we may be subjected to regulatory actions for not adhering to the preventive measures. Any social or political uncertainties or the imposition of new regional or national lockdowns, and the continuation of restrictive measures needed to combat the pandemic could adversely affect business and economic conditions in India generally and our business and prospects.

By virtue of having a significant number of employees in India, we may be required to comply with various labor and industrial laws in India, which change regularly. If we are unable to comply with such regulations on a timely basis, we may be subjected to sanctions, fines, or other regulatory actions. We cannot assure you that our costs of complying with current and future labor laws and other regulations will not adversely affect our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our wage costs in India have historically been significantly lower than wage costs in the United States and the European Union (EU) for comparably skilled professionals, and this has been one of our competitive advantages. However, wage increases in India due to legislation or other factors may prevent us from sustaining this competitive advantage and may negatively affect our financial performance. We may need to increase the levels of our employee compensation more rapidly than in the past to retain talent. Unless we are able to continue to increase the efficiency and productivity of our employees over the long term, wage increases may negatively affect our financial performance.

The ownership of Indian companies by non-residents is regulated by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Under its consolidated foreign direct investment policy (FDI Policy) and India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the rules and regulations thereunder, particularly the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, each as amended (FEMA), the Government of India has specific requirements with respect to the level of foreign investment permitted in certain business sectors both without (known as the automatic route) and with (known as the approval route) prior regulatory approval, as well as the pricing of such investments, downstream investments by Indian companies owned or controlled by foreign entities, and the transfer of ownership or control of Indian companies in sectors with caps on foreign investment from resident Indian persons or entities to non-residents of India.

Under the FDI Policy, 100% foreign ownership is allowed under the automatic route (i.e., generally without prior regulatory approval) in companies engaged in business to business (B2B) e-commerce activities. Our current business operations and holding structure comply with these foreign investment restrictions and conditions. However, the Government of India has made and may continue to make revisions to the FEMA and the FDI Policy as regards e-commerce in India, including in relation to inventory, pricing, discounting, and permitted services. The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India (DPIIT) is also in the process of legislating a national e-commerce policy, which will address e-commerce regulation and data protection. The timing or impact of this policy, which remains in draft form, is not yet certain. Such changes may require us to make changes to our business in order to comply with Indian law.

The regulatory framework applicable to e-commerce is constantly evolving and remains subject to change by the Government of India and the RBI. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these evolving laws or regulations could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. Further, pursuant to the issuance of Press Note No. 3 (2020 Series) in April 2020 by the DPIIT amending the FDI Policy and the FEMA, prior government approval is required for all foreign direct investment into India by non-resident entities from countries that share a land border with India or where the beneficial owner of such an investment is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, as well as for any transfer of any such proposed or existing foreign direct investment, directly or indirectly, that would result in ownership by any such non-resident entity or beneficial owner. The list of land border countries includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. This approval requirement applies to investments in all sectors, including those that previously did not require such approval. The term “beneficial owner” has not yet been defined for purposes of the FDI Policy and the FEMA rules. In the event these restrictions are found to apply to our Indian subsidiaries in the context of any future capital raise or downstream investment in our Indian subsidiaries, our ability to effect such transactions in a timely manner may be adversely affected.

Our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected by any change in the extensive central and state tax regime in India applicable to us and our business. Tax and other levies imposed by the central and state governments in India that affect our tax liability include central and state taxes and

U.S. and Indian transfer-pricing regulations require that any international transaction involving associated enterprises be at an arm's-length price. Transactions among Freshworks and our subsidiaries may be considered such transactions. Accordingly, we determine the pricing among our entities on the basis of detailed functional and economic analysis involving benchmarking against transactions among entities that are not under common control. If the income tax authorities review any of our tax returns and determine that the transfer price applied was not appropriate, we may incur increased tax liabilities, including accrued interest and penalties. In mitigating the risk of transfer pricing arrangements, we have filed for an Advance Pricing Arrangement with the India Revenue authorities providing certainty of the arm's-length pricing methodology for future years.

If the shareholders of the foreign company exit by way of redemption of the shares held by them in the foreign company or by selling the shares in foreign company, the shareholders could be taxed in India where the foreign company derives substantial value from India subject to shareholders being either entitled to small shareholder exemption available under Income Tax Act, 1961 or a benefit under the applicable double taxation avoidance agreement.

Tax laws and regulations are also subject to differing interpretations by various authorities in India. Differing interpretations of tax and other fiscal laws and regulations may exist within governmental ministries, including tax administration and appellate authorities, thus creating uncertainty and potential unexpected results. The degree of uncertainty in tax laws and regulations, combined with significant penalties for default and a risk of aggressive action by the governmental or tax authorities, may result in tax risks in the jurisdictions in which we operate being significantly higher than expected. Unfavorable changes in or interpretations of existing, or the promulgation of new, laws, rules and regulations including foreign investment and stamp duty laws governing our business and operations could result in us being deemed to be in contravention of such laws and may require us to apply for additional approvals. We may incur increased costs and other burdens relating to compliance with such new requirements, which may also require significant management time and other resources, and any failure to comply may adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects. Uncertainty in the applicability, interpretation or implementation of any amendment to, or change in, governing law, regulation or policy, including by reason of an absence, or a limited body, of administrative or judicial precedent may be time consuming as well as costly for us to resolve and may impact the viability of our current businesses or restrict our ability to grow our businesses in the future. We are continually under review by the Indian tax authorities and have not received any assessments to date that would have a material impact to our financial statements.

Whether our Indian subsidiaries will pay us dividends in the future and the amount of any such dividends, if declared, will depend on a number of factors, including future earnings, financial condition and performance, cash flows, working capital requirements, capital expenditures and other factors considered relevant by us and the boards of our Indian subsidiaries. We may decide to retain a substantial portion or all of our earnings in our Indian subsidiaries to finance the development and expansion of our business and, therefore, may not declare dividends.

In the event dividends are declared, the Finance Act, 2020 requires that any dividends paid by an Indian company be subject to tax in the hands of the shareholders at applicable rates, such taxes will be withheld by the Indian subsidiary paying dividends.

We have in the past, and may in the future, become subject to intellectual property or other disputes. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our offering without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. However, we may not be aware that our offering is infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating third-party intellectual property rights. From time to time, our competitors or other third parties have claimed, and may in the future claim, that we are infringing upon, misappropriating, or violating their intellectual property rights, even if we are unaware of the intellectual property rights that such parties may claim cover our products or some or all of the other technologies we use in our business. As the number of patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights in our industry increases, and as the coverage of these rights increases, we believe that companies in our industry will face more frequent infringement claims. For example, on March 17, 2020, Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd. filed a lawsuit in the United States Court for the Northern District of California, as amended as of November 18, 2020, alleging the following causes of action against us: (1) violation of Defend Trade Secrets Act, (2) violation of the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and (3) violation of The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The complaint, as amended, seeks compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages, each in an unspecified amount, interest on all damages, costs, and injunctive relief. While we believe we have meritorious defenses to the claims made in the lawsuit and intend to conduct a vigorous defense to such action, litigation is costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management and the outcome of such action remains uncertain.

As we face increasing competition and our public profile increases, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us may also increase. The costs of supporting such litigation, regardless of merit, are considerable, and such litigation may divert management and key personnel’s attention and resources, which might seriously harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We may be required to settle such litigation on terms that are unfavorable to us. For example, a settlement may require us to obtain a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party’s rights, which may not be available on reasonable terms and may significantly increase our operating expenses. A license to continue such practices may not be available to us at all. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices or discontinue the practices. The development of alternative non-infringing technology or practices would require significant effort and expense. Similarly, if any litigation to which we may be a party fails to settle and we go to trial, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment which may not be reversible upon appeal. For example, the terms of a judgment may require us to cease some or all of our operations or require the payment of substantial amounts to the other party. Any of these events would cause our business and results of operations to be materially and adversely affected as a result.

Moreover, insurance might not cover such claims or disputes, might not provide sufficient payments to cover all the costs to resolve one or more such claims, and might not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim or dispute brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We are also frequently required to indemnify our channel partners and customers in the event of any third-party infringement claims against our customers and third parties who offer our products, and such indemnification obligations may be excluded from contractual limitation of liability provisions that limit our exposure. These claims may require us to initiate or defend protracted and costly litigation on behalf of our customers and channel partners, regardless of the merits of these claims. If any of these claims succeed, we may be forced to pay damages on behalf of our customers and channel partners, may be required to modify one or more products to make it non-infringing, or may be required to obtain licenses for the products used. If we cannot obtain all necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our customers may be forced to stop using one or more products, and our channel partners may be forced to stop selling one or more of our products.

Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our intellectual property rights and proprietary information in the United States and abroad. We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret protection laws to protect our intellectual property rights and proprietary information both in the United States and abroad. The intellectual property laws and protections offered in countries outside of the United States may not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as laws in the United States. Therefore, our efforts to protect our intellectual property may not be adequate and competitors may independently develop similar technology or duplicate our products or services and compete with us in this and other geographies where enforcement of intellectual property rights is less clear than in the United States.

While we maintain a policy requiring our employees, consultants, independent contractors, and third parties who are engaged to develop any material intellectual property for us to enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements to control access to and use of our proprietary information and to ensure that any intellectual property developed by such employees, contractors, consultants, and other third parties are assigned to us, we cannot guarantee that the confidentiality and proprietary agreements or other employee, consultant, or independent contractor agreements we enter into adequately protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary information. In addition, we cannot guarantee that these agreements will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, or that the applicable counter-parties to such agreements will not assert rights to our intellectual property rights or other proprietary information arising out of these relationships. Furthermore, the steps we have taken and may take in the future may not prevent misappropriation of our proprietary solutions or technologies, particularly with respect to employees who are no longer employed by us.

Furthermore, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe or circumvent our intellectual property rights, and we may not be able to prevent infringement without incurring substantial expense. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights would be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management and key personnel, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. If the protection of our intellectual property rights is inadequate to prevent use or misappropriation by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products and methods of operations. Any of these events would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our future success and competitive position depend in part upon our ability to obtain or maintain certain intellectual property used in our products. While we have been issued patents for certain aspects of our intellectual property in the United States and have additional patent applications pending in the United States, we have not applied for patent protection in foreign jurisdictions, and may be unable to obtain patent protection for the technology covered in our patent applications. In addition, we cannot ensure that any of the patent applications will be approved or that the claims allowed on any issued patents will be sufficiently broad to protect our technology or products and provide us with competitive advantages. Furthermore, any issued patents may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented by third parties.

Many patent applications in the United States may not be public for a period of time after they are filed, and since publication of discoveries in the scientific or patent literature tends to lag behind actual discoveries by several months, we cannot be certain that we will be the first creator of inventions covered by any patent application we make or that we will be the first to file patent applications on such inventions. Because some patent applications may not be public for a period of time, there is also a risk that we could adopt a technology without knowledge of a pending patent application, which technology would infringe a third-party patent once that patent is issued.

We also rely on unpatented proprietary technology. It is possible that others will independently develop the same or similar technology or otherwise obtain access to our unpatented technology. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information, we require employees, consultants, and independent contractors to enter into confidentiality agreements. We cannot assure you that these agreements will provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets, know-how, or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use, misappropriation, or disclosure of such trade secrets, know-how, or other proprietary information. If we are unable to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies, our business would be materially adversely affected.

We rely on our trademarks, trade names, and brand names to distinguish our solutions from the products of our competitors, and have registered or applied to register many of these trademarks in the United States and certain countries outside the United States. However, occasionally third parties may have already registered identical or similar marks for products or solutions that also address the software market. As we rely in part on brand names and trademark protection to enforce our intellectual property rights, efforts by third parties to limit use of our brand names or trademarks and barriers to the registration of brand names and trademarks in various countries may restrict our ability to promote and maintain a cohesive brand throughout our key markets. There can also be no assurance that pending or future U.S. or foreign trademark applications will be approved in a timely manner or at all, or that such registrations will effectively protect our brand names and trademarks. Third parties may also oppose our trademark applications, or otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products, which would result in loss of brand recognition and would require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands.

A portion of the technologies we use in our products and mobile applications incorporates “open source” software, and we may incorporate open source software in our products and mobile applications in the future.

From time to time, companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open source software and their compliance with the terms of the applicable open source license. We may be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming non-compliance with the applicable open source licensing terms. Some open source licenses require end-users who distribute or make available across a network software and services that include open source software to make available all or part of such software, which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code, at no cost, or license such code under the terms of the particular open source license. While we employ practices designed to monitor our compliance with the licenses of third-party open source software and protect our valuable proprietary source code, we may inadvertently use third-party open source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the applicable terms of such license, including claims for infringement of intellectual property rights or for breach of contract. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose source code that incorporates or is a modification of such licensed software. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of open-source software license types, almost none of which have been tested in a court of law, resulting in a dearth of guidance regarding the proper legal interpretation of such license types. If an author or other third party that distributes open source software that we use or license were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of the applicable open source license, we could expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software or be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the sale of our products that contained the open source software, and required to comply with the foregoing conditions, including public release of certain portions of our proprietary source code.

In addition, the use of third-party open source software typically exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software because open-source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our products. Any of the foregoing could be harmful to our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We rely on software licensed from third parties to offer our products. In addition, we may need to obtain future licenses from third parties to use intellectual property rights associated with the development of our products, which might not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any third-party software required for the development and maintenance of our products or mobile applications could result in loss of functionality or availability of our products or mobile applications until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained, and integrated. Any errors or defects in third-party software could result in errors or a failure of our products or mobile applications. Any of the foregoing would disrupt the distribution and sale of subscriptions to our products and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We have a significant portion of our operations in India. As of August 31, 2021, 3,861 of our employees reside in India, 88% of our total employee population. For the six months ended June 30, 2021, 58% of our revenue was generated from customers outside North America. Besides India and the United States, we have significant marketing and sales operations primarily in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic, and political risks that are different from those in the United States. In addition, we will face risks in doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business and results of operations, including:

As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks. These factors and others could harm our ability to increase international revenue and, consequently, would materially impact our business and results of operations. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks effectively could limit the future growth of our business.

In particular, the majority of our software development operations are in India. Terrorist attacks and other acts of violence or war have the potential to directly impact our customers. To the extent that such attacks affect or involve India, our business may be significantly impacted due to the extent of our operations in India. Further, South Asia has from time to time experienced instances of civil unrest and hostilities among neighboring countries. Such activities could disrupt communications, make travel more difficult, and create a greater perception that investments in companies with large operations in India involve a higher degree of risk. This, in turn, could have an adverse effect on the market for our Class A common stock.

We process business and personal information belonging to our users, customers, and employees and because of this, we are subject to numerous federal, state, local, and foreign laws, orders, codes, regulations, and regulatory guidance regarding privacy, data protection, information security, and the processing of personal information and other content (Data Protection Laws), the number and scope of which are changing, subject to differing applications and interpretations, and may be inconsistent among countries, or conflict with other rules, laws, or Data Protection Obligations (defined below). We expect that there will continue to be new Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future Data Protection Laws may have on our business.

We are also subject to the terms of our internal and external privacy and security policies, codes, representations, certifications, industry standards, publications, and frameworks (Privacy Policies) and obligations to third parties related to privacy, data protection, and information security (Data Protection Obligations).

The requirements or obligations of the regulatory framework for privacy, information security, data protection, and data Processing worldwide is, and is likely to remain, uncertain for the foreseeable future, and it is possible that these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices.

Any significant change in Data Protection Laws or Data Protection Obligations, including without limitation, regarding Processing of our users’ or customers’ data, or regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of users or customers for the use and disclosure of such data is obtained, could increase our costs and could require us to modify our products or operations, possibly in a material manner, and may limit our ability to develop new services and features that make use of the data that our users and customers voluntarily share, or may limit our ability to store and Process customer data and operate our business.

In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), which came into effect in May 2018, imposes more stringent data protection requirements and provides for greater penalties for noncompliance than previous data protection laws, including fines of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of annual global revenue. While we instituted a GDPR compliance strategy and program that we continue to evaluate and improve as our products change and expand, we still cannot be certain how EU regulators will interpret or enforce many aspects of

European data protection laws, including the GDPR, also generally prohibit the transfer of personal data from Europe, including the EEA, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, to the United States and most other countries unless the parties to the transfer have established a legal basis for the transfer and implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal data. Although there are legal mechanisms to allow for the transfer of personal information from the United Kingdom, the EEA, and Switzerland to the United States, uncertainty about compliance with such data protection laws remains and such mechanisms may not be available or applicable with respect to the business or personal information Processing activities necessary to research, develop and market our products. For example, one of the primary mechanisms allowing U.S. companies to import personal information from Europe in compliance with the GDPR has been certification to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks. However, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework was invalidated in July 2020 in a decision by the Court of Justice of the EU and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework was declared as inadequate by the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

The decision by the Court of Justice and the announcement by the Swiss Commissioner also both raised questions about whether one of the primary alternatives to the Privacy Shield frameworks, the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, can lawfully be used for personal information transfers from Europe to the United States or most other countries. In November 2020, EU regulators proposed a new set of Standard Contractual Clauses, which impose additional obligations and requirements with respect to the transfer of EU personal information to other jurisdictions, which may increase the legal risks and liabilities under the GDPR and local EU laws associated with cross-border data transfers, and result in material increased compliance and operational costs. At present, there are few, if any, viable alternatives to the Privacy Shield and the Standard Contractual Clauses. If we are unable to implement a valid solution for personal information transfers to the United States and other countries, we will face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines, and injunctions against Processing or transferring personal information from Europe, and we may be required to increase our data Processing capabilities in Europe at significant expense. Inability to import personal information from Europe to the United States or other countries may decrease demand for our products and services as our customers that are subject to the GDPR may seek alternatives that do not involve personal information transfers out of Europe. Furthermore, other countries outside of Europe have enacted or are considering enacting similar cross-border data transfer restrictions and laws requiring local data residency, which could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our products and services and operating our business.

Additionally, following the result of a referendum in 2016, the United Kingdom left the EU on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as Brexit. Brexit has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom. In particular, it is unclear whether transfer of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will remain lawful under the GDPR. Pursuant to a post-Brexit trade deal between the United Kingdom and the EU, transfers of personal information from the EEA to the United Kingdom are not considered restricted transfers under the GDPR for a period of up to six months from January 1, 2021. While the European Commission has issued, and the European Data Protection Board has adopted, two draft Opinions on the adequacy of the United Kingdom’s data protection regime, unless the EU Commission makes a final adequacy finding with respect to the United Kingdom before the end of that period, the United Kingdom will be considered a “third country” under the GDPR, and transfers of European personal information to the United Kingdom will require an adequacy mechanism to render such transfers lawful under the GDPR. Additionally, although United Kingdom privacy, data protection, and data security laws are designed to be consistent with the GDPR, uncertainty remains regarding how privacy, data protection, information security, and data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated notwithstanding Brexit. For example, authorities in the United Kingdom may also invalidate use of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and raise questions on the viability of the Standard Contractual Clauses. With substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of privacy, data protection, or information security in the United Kingdom,

In addition to the EU, a growing number of other global jurisdictions are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and Processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our products, particularly as we further expand our operations internationally. Some of these laws, such as the General Data Protection Law in Brazil or the Act on the Protection of Personal Information in Japan, impose similar obligations as those under the GDPR. Others, such as those in Russia, India, and China, would potentially impose more stringent obligations, including data localization requirements. If we are unable to develop and offer products that meet legal requirements or help our users and customers meet their obligations under the laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, or if we violate or are perceived to violate any laws, regulations, or other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, we may experience reduced demand for our products, harm to our reputation, and become subject to investigations, claims, and other remedies, which would expose us to significant fines, penalties, and other damages, all of which would harm our business. Further, given the breadth and depth of changes in global data protection obligations, compliance has caused us to expend significant resources, and such expenditures are likely to continue into the future as we continue our compliance efforts and respond to new interpretations and enforcement actions.

Data protection legislation is also becoming increasingly common in the United States at both the federal and state level. For example, California also enacted legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), which affords consumers expanded privacy protections as of January 1, 2020. The potential effects of this legislation are far reaching and may require us to modify our data Processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. For example, the CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase data breach litigation. In addition, the CCPA has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state privacy legislation that, if passed, could increase our potential liability, increase our compliance costs, and adversely affect our business. It also remains unclear how much private litigation will ensue under the data breach private right of action, and whether existing amendments that are favorable to us as a “service provider” that exclude business to business (B2B) information and employee information from certain of the CCPA’s requirements will remain in effect, which would potentially result in additional compliance obligations. Additionally, it is expected that the CCPA will be expanded on January 1, 2023, by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA). The CPRA will, among other things, give California residents the ability to limit use of certain sensitive personal information, further restrict the use of cross-contextual advertising, establish restrictions on the retention of personal information, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA’s private right of action, provide for increased penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the new law which would likely result in increased regulatory scrutiny of California businesses in the areas of data protection and security. Similar laws have been proposed or enacted in other states and at the federal level. For example, Virginia enacted the Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) that may impose obligations similar to or more stringent than those we may face under other data protection laws. Compliance with any newly enacted privacy and data security laws or regulations may be challenging and cost and time-intensive, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to comply with applicable legal requirements.

Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission and many state attorneys general continue to enforce federal and state consumer protection laws against companies for online collection, use, dissemination, and security practices

Additionally, the Government of India, in December 2019, introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, which will provide for a framework for protection of personal data and use of non-personal data and will seek to, among others, lay down norms for cross-border transfer of personal data, define the scope of the definition of personal data and non-personal data, establish a data protection authority, and ensure the accountability of entities Processing personal data. Should such a framework be adopted, our ability to Process business and personal information belonging to our users and customers may be further restricted. Change in existing legislation or introduction of new legislation may require us to incur additional expenditures to ensure compliance with such legislation, which may adversely affect our financial condition. We strive to comply with Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations to the extent possible, but we may at times fail, or may be perceived to have failed, to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees, partners, or vendors do not comply with applicable Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations. A finding that our Privacy Policies are, in whole or part, inaccurate, incomplete, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices, a failure or perceived failure by us to comply with Data Protection Laws or Data Protection Obligations or any data compromise that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of business or personal information or other user or customer data, may increase our compliance and operational costs, limit our ability to market our products or services and attract new and retain current customers, limit or eliminate our ability to Process data, and result in domestic or foreign governmental enforcement actions and fines, litigation, significant costs, expenses, and fees (including attorney fees), cause a material adverse impact to business operations or financial results, and otherwise result in other material harm to our business. In addition, any such failure or perceived failure could result in public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups, the media or others, which may cause us material reputational harm. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with Data Protection Laws, Privacy Policies, and Data Protection Obligations could also subject us to litigation, claims, proceedings, actions, or investigations by governmental entities, authorities, or regulators that could require changes to our business practices, diversion of resources and the attention of management from our business, regulatory oversights and audits, discontinuance of necessary Processing, or other remedies that adversely affect our business.

We are subject to anti-corruption and anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (FCPA), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the UK Bribery Act 2010, the India Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, offering, soliciting, or accepting, directly or indirectly, improper payments or other benefits to or from any person whether in the public or private sector. As we increase our international sales and business further, our risks under these laws may increase especially given our substantial reliance on sales to and through resellers and other intermediaries. Noncompliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, adverse media coverage, and other consequences. Any investigations, actions, or sanctions could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our business activities are subject to various export control, import, and trade and economic sanction laws and regulations, including, among others, the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, administered by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Customs regulations, and economic and trade sanctions regulations maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which we refer

Although we maintain internal controls reasonably designed to ensure compliance with Trade Controls, our products and services may have in the past been, and could in the future be, provided inadvertently in violation of Trade Controls, despite the precautions we take. Violations of Trade Controls may subject our company, including responsible personnel, to various adverse consequences, including civil or criminal penalties, government investigations, and loss of export privileges. Further, obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required licenses, for particular transactions or uses of our products may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. In addition, if our channel partners fail to obtain any required import, export, or re-export licenses or permits, this could result in a violation of law by us, and we may also suffer reputational harm and other negative consequences, including government investigations and penalties.

Finally, changes in our products or future changes in Trade Controls could result in our inability to provide our products to certain customers or decreased use of our products by existing or potential customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or mobile applications or increased limitations on our ability to export or sell our products and mobile applications would adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet as a primary medium for commerce, communication, and business applications. Federal, state, or foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Changes in these laws or regulations could require us to modify our products in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees, or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet related commerce or communications generally or result in reductions in the demand for internet-based products such as ours. In addition, the use of the internet as a business tool could be harmed due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease of use, accessibility, and quality of service. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been harmed by “viruses,” “worms,” and similar malicious programs and the internet has experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of damage to portions of its infrastructure. If the use of the internet is adversely affected by these issues, demand for our products could decline.

While we have historically transacted in U.S. dollars with our customers and vendors, we have transacted in some foreign currencies with such parties and for our payroll in those foreign jurisdictions where we have operations, and expect to continue to transact in more foreign currencies in the future. Accordingly, fluctuations in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar can adversely affect our revenue, operating expenses and results of operations due to transactional and translational remeasurement that is reflected in our earnings. Also, fluctuations in the values of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar could make it more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations.

The success of our business is dependent on our ability to attract and retain talented and experienced professionals in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Immigration laws in the countries in which we operate are

Our business is strengthened by the ability to mobilize employees between India and the United States where we have significant operations. Changes to U.S. immigration laws could make it more difficult to obtain the required work authorizations for our employees. This could in turn have an adverse effect on our operations and the value of our Class A common stock.

We collect sales and use, value-added and similar taxes in a number of jurisdictions in the United States. One or more states or countries may seek to impose incremental or new sales, use, or other tax collection obligations on us. A successful assertion by a state, country, or other jurisdiction that we should have been or should be collecting additional sales, use, or other similar taxes could, among other things, result in substantial tax payments, create significant administrative burdens for us, discourage potential customers from subscribing to our products due to the incremental cost of any such sales or other related taxes, or otherwise harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Additionally, the application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, GST, business tax, and gross receipt tax, to our business is a complex and evolving issue. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations, and, as a result, amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how new and existing statutes might apply to our business. New legislation could require us to incur substantial costs, including costs associated with tax calculation, collection, and remittance and audit requirements, and could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair that a U.S. state may require an online retailer to collect sales taxes imposed by the state in which the buyer is located, even if the retailer has no physical presence in that state, thus permitting a wider enforcement of such sales tax collection requirements.

As of December 31, 2020, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of $157.9 million portions of which will begin to expire in 2030 if not utilized. In addition, we have foreign tax credits of $5.0 million that will begin to expire in 2027. Furthermore, we have state net operating loss carryforwards of $176.0 million, portions of which will begin to expire beginning in 2032. Portions of these net operating loss carryforwards and foreign tax credits could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. Under the legislation enacted in 2017, informally titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Tax Act), as modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES Act), U.S. federal net operating losses incurred in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020, is limited. It is uncertain how various states will respond to the Tax Act and the CARES Act. For state income tax purposes, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. For example, California recently imposed limits on the usability of California state net operating losses to offset taxable income in tax years beginning after 2019 and before 2023.

In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. Our existing NOLs may be subject to limitations arising from the completion of this offering, together with other transactions that have occurred since our inception, may trigger such an ownership change pursuant to Section 382. In the future, we may experience ownership changes as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If an ownership change occurs and our ability to use

Our effective tax rate could increase due to several factors, including:

In particular, new income, sales and use or other tax laws or regulations could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, regulations could be interpreted, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Act enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to the Tax Act may affect us, and certain aspects of the Tax Act could be repealed or modified in future legislation. For example, the CARES Act modified certain provisions of the Tax Act. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act, the CARES Act, or any newly enacted federal tax legislation. Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net operating losses, and other deferred tax assets relating to our operations, the taxation of foreign earnings, and the deductibility of expenses under the Tax Act or future reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets and could increase our future U.S. tax expense.

We are expanding our international operations to better support our growth into international markets. Our corporate structure and associated transfer pricing policies contemplate future growth in international markets, and consider the functions, risks and assets of the various entities involved in intercompany transactions. The amount of taxes we pay in different jurisdictions may depend on the application of the tax laws of the various jurisdictions, including the United States, to our international business activities, changes in tax rates, new or revised tax laws or interpretations of existing tax laws and policies, and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for pricing intercompany transactions pursuant to our intercompany arrangements or disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a challenge or disagreement were to occur, and our position was not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations. Our financial statements could fail to reflect adequate reserves to cover such a contingency.

We have applied to list our Class A common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market (Nasdaq) under the symbol “FRSH.” However, we cannot assure you that an active trading market for our Class A common stock will develop on that exchange or elsewhere or, if developed, that any market will be sustained. Accordingly, we cannot assure you of the likelihood that an active trading market for our Class A common stock will develop or be

Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock, which is the stock we are offering in this offering, has one vote per share. Based on shares of common stock held as of August 31, 2021, stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, including our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, will together hold approximately 78.3% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock following this offering, and our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mathrubootham, will control approximately 6.5% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, following this offering. As a result, our executive officers, directors, and other affiliates and potentially our Chief Executive Officer on his own will have significant influence over our management and affairs and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of the company or our assets, for the foreseeable future. Even if Mr. Mathrubootham is no longer employed with us, he will continue to have the same influence over matters requiring stockholder approval.

In addition, the holders of Class B common stock collectively will continue to be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval even if their stock holdings represent less than 50% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Because of the 10-to-1 voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock even when the shares of Class B common stock represent as little as 10% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future, and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

Future transfers by holders of shares of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to shares of Class A common stock, which will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. Certain permitted transfers, as specified in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that will be in effect immediately prior to the closing of this offering, will not result in shares of Class B common stock automatically converting to shares of Class A common stock, including certain estate planning transfers as well as transfers to our founders or our founders’ estates or heirs upon death or incapacity of such founder. If, for example, Mr. Mathrubootham (or family trusts to which he were to transfer shares of Class B common stock) retain a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he (or such trusts) could, in the future, control a majority of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock. As a board member, Mr. Mathrubootham owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, Mr. Mathrubootham is entitled to vote his shares in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.

FTSE Russell and Standard & Poor’s do not allow most newly public companies utilizing dual or multi-class capital structures to be included in their indices. Affected indices include the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, and S&P SmallCap 600, which together make up the S&P Composite 1500. Also, in 2017, MSCI, a leading stock index provider, opened public consultations on its treatment of no-vote and multi-class structures and temporarily barred new multi-class listings from certain of its indices; however, in October 2018, MSCI announced its decision to include equity securities “with unequal voting structures” in its indices and to launch a new index that specifically includes voting rights in its eligibility criteria. Under the announced policies, our dual class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in certain indices, and as a result, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track these indices will not be investing in our stock. In addition, we cannot assure you that other stock indices will not take similar actions. Given the sustained flow of investment funds into passive strategies that seek to track certain indices, exclusion from certain stock indices would likely preclude investment by many of these funds and would make our Class A common stock less attractive to

Our executive officers, directors, holders of more than 5% of our capital stock and affiliated entities together beneficially owned approximately 71.2% of our total shares outstanding and 78.3% of our voting power as of August 31, 2021. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have control over our management and affairs and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of us or our assets, for the foreseeable future. Corporate action might be taken even if other stockholders oppose them. This concentration of ownership could also delay or prevent a change of control of us that other stockholders may view as beneficial.

The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock immediately after this offering. If you purchase shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, you will suffer immediate dilution of $26.35 per share, or $26.10 per share if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to the sale of Class A common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price of $30.00 per share. See the section titled “Dilution.”

We may issue our capital stock or securities convertible into our capital stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investments, or otherwise. We intend to issue an additional 2,850,000 shares of our Class A common stock and donate such shares to our charitable foundation after the completion of this offering, which will result in additional dilution to our existing stockholders. Additional issuances of our stock will result in dilution to existing holders of our stock. Also, to the extent outstanding stock options to purchase our stock are exercised or restricted stock units settle, there will be further dilution. Any such issuances could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to decline.

All of our directors and officers and holders of substantially all of our common stock and securities exercisable for or convertible into our common stock, are subject to lock-up agreements or market standoff agreements that restrict their ability to transfer such securities during the period ending on the earlier of (i) 181 days after the date of this prospectus and (ii) the opening of trading on the second trading day after we announce earnings results for the quarter ending December 31, 2021, subject to certain exceptions. We refer to this restricted period as the lock-up period. All holders of our securities are subject to market standoff agreements with us that restrict their ability to transfer such securities during the lock-up period. Such market standoff provisions generally do not provide for exceptions or allow for early releases. We will not amend or waive any of the restrictions of such market standoff agreements during the lock-up period without the prior written consent of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and BofA Securities, Inc. on behalf of the underwriters.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the lock-up agreements provide, and we intend to waive restrictions of the market standoff agreements to provide, that, subject to the provisions of Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, on the date set forth in the table below, all holders of our common stock and securities exercisable for or convertible into our common stock may sell up to the applicable percentage of their outstanding shares, to the extent vested (including shares issuable upon exercise of options or settlement of RSUs), if certain trading price conditions of our Class A common stock are met, as described in the table below:

To the extent the early release conditions are not met and shares are not early released from the lock up as described above, then such shares eligible for sale at the expiration of the lock-up period will include a total of approximately 21.2 million shares issuable upon settlement of vested RSUs that will have satisfied the service and performance-based conditions, and the liquidity event condition, as of the date of this prospectus. In such case, we intend to cause such vested RSUs to then be settled on or about the expiration of the lock-up period. If not earlier released, all of our shares of common stock, other than those shares of Class A common stock sold in this offering which are freely tradable, will become eligible for sale upon expiration of the lock-up period, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act.

Prior to this offering, there was no public market for shares of our Class A common stock. The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock was determined through negotiation between us and the underwriters. This price does not necessarily reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell shares of our Class A common stock following this offering. In addition, the trading price of our Class A common stock following this offering is likely to be volatile and could be subject to fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control, and this volatility could be accentuated by the limited public float of our shares relative to our overall capitalization. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock as you might be unable to sell your shares at or above the price you paid in this offering. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A common stock include the risk factors set forth in this section as well as the following:

In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market following the completion of this offering, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our Class A common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Many of our existing equity holders have substantial unrecognized gains on the value of the equity they hold based upon the price of this offering, and therefore they may take steps to sell their shares or otherwise secure the unrecognized gains on those shares.

Equity research analysts do not currently provide coverage of our Class A common stock, and we cannot assure that any equity research analysts will adequately provide research coverage of our Class A common stock after the listing of our Class A common stock on Nasdaq. The trading market for our Class A common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. The analysts’ estimates are based upon their own opinions and are often different from our estimates or expectations. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Class A common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our securities would likely decline. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our securities could decrease, which might cause the price and trading volume of our Class A common stock to decline.

As a public company listed in the United States, we will incur significant additional legal, accounting, and other expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including regulations implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq, may increase legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations, and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If, notwithstanding our efforts, we fail to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.

Failure to comply with these rules might also make it more difficult for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we might be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events would also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, on committees of our board of directors, or as members of senior management.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), and for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of over $1.07 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30 and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result of any choices to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock, and our stock price may be more volatile.

We believe that a critical component of our success has been our culture. We have invested substantial time and resources in building out our team with an emphasis on shared values and a commitment to diversity and inclusion. As we continue to develop the infrastructure to support our growth, we will need to maintain our culture among a larger number of employees dispersed in various geographic regions, particularly in light of our employees working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to the useful lives and carrying values of long-lived assets, the fair value of our Class A common stock, stock-based compensation expense, the period of benefit for deferred contract acquisition costs, and income taxes. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our Class A common stock.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the rules and regulations of the applicable Nasdaq listing standards. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming, and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act, is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also continuing to improve our internal controls over financial reporting. For example, as we have prepared to become a public company, we have worked to improve the controls around our key accounting processes and our quarterly close process, and we

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. In addition, changes in accounting principles or interpretations could also challenge our internal controls and require that we establish new business processes, systems, and controls to accommodate such changes. We have limited experience with implementing the systems and controls that will be necessary to operate as a public company, as well as adopting changes in accounting principles or interpretations mandated by the relevant regulatory bodies. Additionally, if these new systems, controls, or standards and the associated process changes do not give rise to the benefits that we expect or do not operate as intended, it could adversely affect our financial reporting systems and processes, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial reports or the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Moreover, our business may be harmed if we experience problems with any new systems and controls that result in delays in their implementation or increased costs to correct any post-implementation issues that may arise.

Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our consolidated financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on Nasdaq. We are not currently required to comply with the SEC rules that implement Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and are therefore not required to make a formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for that purpose. As a public company, we are required to provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting commencing with our second annual report on Form 10-K.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed, or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition and could cause a decline in the trading price of our Class A common stock. Changes in tax laws or regulations could be enacted or existing tax laws or regulations could be applied to us or our customers in a manner that could increase the costs of our products and harm our business.

We are currently in the process of significantly enhancing our information systems and have recently implemented a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The implementation of significant enhancements to information systems is frequently disruptive to the underlying business of an enterprise, which may especially be the case for us due to the size and complexity of our businesses. The implementation process has required, and will continue to require, the investment of significant personnel and financial resources. We may not be able to successfully implement these enhancements to information systems without experiencing further delays, increased costs and other difficulties. Any disruptions relating to our systems enhancements, particularly any disruptions impacting our operations during the design or implementation periods, could adversely affect our ability to process

We cannot specify with any certainty the particular uses of the net proceeds that we will receive from this offering. Our management will have broad discretion over the use of net proceeds from this offering, including for any of the purposes described in “Use of Proceeds,” and you will not have the opportunity as part of your investment decision to assess whether the net proceeds are being used appropriately. Investors may not agree with our decisions, and our use of the proceeds may not yield any return on your investment. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of the net proceeds from this offering, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. Our failure to apply the net proceeds of this offering effectively could impair our ability to pursue our growth strategy or could require us to raise additional capital.

As part of our business strategy to expand our product offerings and grow our business in response to changing technologies, customer demand, and competitive pressures, we have in the past and may in the future make investments or acquisitions in other companies, products, or technologies. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. These acquisitions may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve the goals of such acquisition, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by customers or investors. We may encounter difficult or unforeseen expenditures in integrating an acquisition, particularly if we cannot retain the key personnel of the acquired company. Existing and potential customers may also delay or reduce their use of our products due to a concern that the acquisition may decrease effectiveness of our products (including any newly acquired product). In addition, if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions, or the assets, technologies, or personnel associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the business and results of operations of the combined company would be adversely affected.

Acquisitions may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from their primary responsibilities, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses, subject us to increased regulatory requirements, cause adverse tax consequences or unfavorable accounting treatment, expose us to claims and disputes by stockholders and third parties, and adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology and accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. We may have to pay cash for any such acquisition which would limit other potential uses for our cash. If we incur debt to fund any such acquisition, such debt may subject us to material restrictions in our ability to conduct our business, result in increased fixed obligations, and subject us to covenants or other restrictions that would decrease our operational flexibility and impede our ability to manage our operations. If we issue a significant amount of equity securities in connection with future acquisitions, existing stockholders’ ownership would be diluted.

The technology industry is subject to intense media, political, and regulatory scrutiny, which exposes us to government investigations, legal actions, and penalties. Various regulatory agencies, including competition, consumer protection, and privacy authorities, have active proceedings and investigations concerning multiple

We also could be harmed by government investigations, litigation, or changes in laws and regulations directed at our business partners, or suppliers in the technology industry that have the effect of limiting our ability to do business with those entities or that affect the services we can obtain from them. There can be no assurance that our business will not be materially adversely affected, individually or in the aggregate, by the outcomes of such investigations, litigation or changes to laws and regulations in the future.

Historically, we have financed our operations and capital expenditures primarily through sales of our capital stock and debt securities that are convertible into our capital stock. In the future, we may raise additional capital through additional equity or debt financings to support our business growth, to respond to business opportunities, challenges, or unforeseen circumstances, or for other reasons. On an ongoing basis, we are evaluating sources of financing and may raise additional capital in the future. Our ability to obtain additional capital will depend on our development efforts, business plans, investor demand, operating performance, the condition of the capital markets, and other factors. We cannot assure you that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked, or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the rights of existing stockholders, and existing stockholders may experience dilution. Further, if we are unable to obtain additional capital when required, or are unable to obtain additional capital on satisfactory terms, our ability to continue to support our business growth or to respond to business opportunities, challenges, or unforeseen circumstances would be adversely affected.

Additionally, our subsidiaries in India are subject to Indian foreign exchange controls that regulate borrowing in foreign currencies. Such regulatory restrictions limit our financing sources and hence could constrain our ability to obtain financing on competitive terms and refinance existing indebtedness. In addition, we cannot assure you that the required approvals will be granted to us without onerous conditions, or at all. Limitations on raising foreign debt may have an adverse impact on our business growth, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that will be in effect at the closing of this offering will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law:

This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be effective immediately prior to the closing of this offering will provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause or causes of action arising under the Securities Act, including all causes of action asserted against any defendant to such complaint. For the avoidance of doubt, this provision is intended to benefit and may be enforced by us, our officers and directors, the underwriters to any offering giving rise to such complaint, and any other professional entity whose profession gives authority to a statement made by that person or entity and who has prepared or certified any part of the documents underlying the offering.

While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions, and there can be no assurance that such provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. We note that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Additionally, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be effective immediately prior to the closing of this offering will provide that any person or entity holding, owning or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions.

There are provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as they will be in effect following this offering, that may make it difficult for a third party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control was considered favorable by our stockholders, such as:

Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibit a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Any provision in our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We expect to retain future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. Any future determination to pay dividends on our capital stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, stockholders must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce, and the global economy, and thus could harm our business. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, including the reactions of governments, markets, and the general public, may result in a number of adverse consequences for our business, operations, and results of operations, many of which are beyond our control. In the event of a major earthquake, monsoon, hurricane, or catastrophic event such as fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, cyber-attack, war, or terrorist attack, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our products’ development, lengthy interruptions in our products, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Acts of terrorism would also cause disruptions to the internet or the economy as a whole. In addition, the insurance we maintain would likely not be adequate to cover our losses resulting from disasters or other business interruptions. Our disaster recovery plan may not be sufficient to address all aspects or any unanticipated consequence or incident, and our insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur.

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans, and objectives of management for future operations, including our statements regarding the benefits and timing of the roll-out of new technology, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and operating results. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this prospectus. While we believe that such information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this prospectus to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments.

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from this offering of approximately $803.6 million (or approximately $884.6 million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full) based on an assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share of Class A common stock, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated expenses related to the offering.

A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share of Class A common stock would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $27.0 million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $28.4 million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share of Class A common stock remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.

The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, and create a public market for our Class A common stock. We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the remaining net proceeds to us from this offering. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for acquisitions or strategic investments in complementary businesses, products, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments to enter into any such acquisitions or investments at this time. We will have broad discretion over how to use the net proceeds to us from this offering. We intend to invest the net proceeds to us from this offering that are not used as described above in investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.

This prospectus contains statistical data, estimates, forecasts, and other information concerning our industry, including market position and the size and growth rates of the markets in which we participate, that are based on independent industry publications and reports or other publicly available information, as well as other information based on our internal sources. While we believe the industry and market data included in this prospectus are reliable and are based on reasonable assumptions, this information involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. We have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and other publicly available information. The industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the sections titled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the projections and estimates made by the independent third parties and us. See the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—The estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.”

The sources of certain statistical data, estimates, and forecasts contained in this prospectus are the following independent industry reports:

Certain statistical information in this prospectus is also based on a June 2021 survey of our employees, which we published in June 2021 (Employee Survey). The number of individuals who responded to each survey question cited in this prospectus was approximately 3,100. We distributed the Employee Survey to over 3,500 employees, which represented over 85% of our employees as of June 30, 2021.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination regarding the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then-existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, we may enter into agreements in the future that could contain restrictions on payments of cash dividends.

The following table sets forth our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and our capitalization as of June 30, 2021:

The pro forma and pro forma as adjusted information below is illustrative only, and our capitalization following the completion of this offering will be adjusted based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. You should read the information set forth below in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes, the information in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and other financial information contained elsewhere in this prospectus.

If you invest in our Class A common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock after this offering.

Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) as of June 30, 2021 was $(3.1) billion, or $(40.25) per share of common stock. Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) per share represents our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, divided by the number of shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2021.

After giving further effect to the sale of shares of Class A common stock that we are offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2021 would have been approximately $950.9 million, or approximately $3.38 per share. This amount represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $2.80 per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution in pro forma net tangible book value of approximately $26.62 per share to new investors purchasing shares of Class A common stock in this offering.

Dilution per share to new investors is determined by subtracting pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering from the initial public offering price per share paid by new investors. The following table illustrates this dilution (without giving effect to any exercise by the underwriters of their over-allotment option):

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by approximately $0.10 per share, and decrease (increase) the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to new investors by approximately $0.10 per share, assuming that the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by approximately $0.09 per

If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value after the offering would be $3.63 per share, the increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share to existing stockholders would be $3.05 per share and the dilution per share to new investors would be $26.37 per share, in each case assuming an initial public offering price of $30.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus.

The following table summarizes on the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, as of June 30, 2021, the differences between the number of shares of Class B common stock purchased from us by our existing stockholders and Class A common stock by new investors purchasing shares in this offering, the total consideration paid to us in cash and the average price per share paid by existing stockholders for shares of Class B common stock issued prior to this offering and the price to be paid by new investors for shares of Class A common stock in this offering. The calculation below is based on the assumed initial public offering price of $30.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus, before deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated expenses related to the offering payable by us.

To the extent any outstanding options are exercised, there will be further dilution to new investors. If all of such outstanding options had been exercised as of June 30, 2021, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering would be $951.3 million, and total dilution per share to new investors would be $26.64.

If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, our existing stockholders would own 88.8% and the investors purchasing shares of our Class A common stock in this offering would own 11.2% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding immediately after completion of this offering.

Pro forma basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders for the year ended December 31, 2020 and for the six months ended June 30, 2021 has been computed to give effect to the conversion of convertible preferred stock, and the RSUs and performance-based RSUs (PRSUs) that will vest in connection with this offering and the related stock-based compensation expense.

The following table sets forth the computation of the pro forma basic and diluted net loss per share assuming the offering is completed as of the beginning of the periods presented:

Since our founding in 2010, we have achieved consistently strong growth, and have achieved the following key product, business, and company milestones:

Our business has grown rapidly in recent periods as our customer base and operations have scaled. Our total revenue was $172.4 million and $249.7 million in the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 45%. Our total revenue was $110.5 million and $168.9 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 53%. We incurred operating losses of $29.7 million and $56.1 million in the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively, and our net losses were $31.1 million and $57.3 million in the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We incurred operating losses of $52.8 million and $8.2 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively, and our net losses were $57.1 million and $9.8 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively. In the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our net cash (used in) provided by operating activities was $(8.2) million and $32.5 million, respectively, and our free cash flow was $(23.0) million and $23.5 million, respectively. In the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, our net cash provided by operating activities was $6.3 million and $8.7 million, respectively, and our free cash flow was $1.3 million and $3.7 million, respectively. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for a description of this measure and other information.

We generate revenue primarily from the sale of subscriptions for Freshworks products. Subscriptions are priced primarily based on the number of agents or users. We offer different subscription plans to serve the varying needs of our customers within our three main product lines of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshsales.

The terms of our subscription agreements are typically either annual or monthly, and we bill for the full term in advance or on a monthly basis, depending on the customer preference. We recognize subscription revenue ratably over the term of the subscription period. As our business has grown and we have increased the number of large organizations in our customer base, we have seen a larger proportion of annual subscriptions. As of December 31, 2019, June 30, 2020, December 31, 2020, and June 30, 2021, annual recurring revenue (defined below) generated from annual subscriptions was 54%, 58%, 59%, and 62%, respectively. Substantially all of our revenue was derived from subscriptions.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we undertook decisive and comprehensive actions to lessen the impact of the pandemic on our business, including implementing a fully remote, work from home policy across all our global offices, enacting new policies and operating procedures, including restrictions on Freshworks-related business travel and reductions of in-person events. Management continues to review operations and to date, while there have been minimal interruptions in our customer facing operations, we continue to monitor the situation, especially with respect to our India operations.

Our customers were impacted by the pandemic throughout 2020. The conditions caused by the pandemic adversely affected spending by new customers and renewal and retention rates of existing customers. We offered customer concessions in the form of subscription credits primarily during the second and third quarters of 2020 to customers who experienced difficulty, particularly those within the leisure, hospitality and travel industries. The impact of the pandemic on our results were more pronounced in the second quarter of 2020 and then moderated during the second half of 2020. Meanwhile, we have also experienced, and may continue to experience, certain positive impacts on other aspects of our business. We believe that the pandemic has caused many of our customers and potential customers to accelerate their IT and digital investments benefiting businesses, like ours, that enable and enhance digital transformations. In addition, we have seen a temporary reduction in certain operating expenses

Given our subscription-based business model, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be fully reflected in our revenue until future periods. The extent of the impact of COVID-19 on our future operational and financial performance will depend on certain developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak, related public health measures, and their impact on the macroeconomy, our current and prospective customers, employees, and vendors. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations remains highly uncertain, and it is not possible for us to predict the duration and extent to which this will affect our business, including productivity of our employees in the United States and in India, where we have significant operations, future results of operations, and financial condition at this time. See the section titled “Risk Factors” for further discussion of the challenges and risks we have encountered and could encounter related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The growth and future success of our business depends on many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to sustain our growth and improve our results of operations. For complete definitions of our key metrics, please refer to the section titled “Key Business Metrics” below.

We will continue to invest in acquiring new customers across all of our products. We believe that our focus on offering products that delight our users facilitates our go-to-market strategy, which is designed to be product-led and self-service in nature, reducing the friction new customers have to overcome to adopt our products within their organization. Our approach to acquiring new customers allows us to benefit from user-driven, organic adoption of our products across organizations of all sizes, as well as enable our customers to standardize on our products across the organization. As of June 30, 2021, we had approximately 52,500 paying customers, as compared to approximately 32,700, 35,100, 37,500, 40,000, 42,100, 44,400, 47,000, 48,500, and 50,500 as of March 31, 2019, June 30, 2019, September 30, 2019, December 31, 2019, March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020, September 30, 2020, December 31, 2020, and March 31, 2021, respectively.

We also run focused programs to acquire startup and incubator customers. These programs include free credits to use our products, and webinars and events specifically tailored to highlight the benefits of our products for these types of customers. By encouraging startups and incubators to use our products early on in their company’s lifecycle, we believe we have the opportunity to convert these organizations to paying customers and grow with these customers as they grow their businesses.

Our business model relies on rapidly and efficiently landing new customers and expanding our relationships with them over time. We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience that, over time, a significant portion of our revenue growth will come from our existing customers expanding their usage of our products and buying additional products.

The chart below illustrates the total ARR of each cohort as of December 31, 2020 over the periods presented, net of contraction and churn. Each cohort represents customers who made their first purchase from us in a given year. For example, the 2016 cohort includes all customers that purchased their first subscription from us between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.

We measure the rate of expansion within our customer base using net dollar retention rate, and we believe that our net dollar retention rate demonstrates a significant rate of expansion within our existing customer base. As of June 30, 2021, our net dollar retention rate was 118%. Our net dollar retention rate as of March 31, 2019, June 30, 2019, September 30, 2019, December 31, 2019, March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020, September 30, 2020, December 31, 2020, and March 31, 2021 was 110%, 113%, 113%, 115%, 113%, 107%, 109%, 111%, and 112%, respectively.

We have a significant opportunity to expand within our existing customer base and substantially increase the number of customers that purchase multiple Freshworks products. As of June 30, 2021, approximately 18% of our customers purchased two or more Freshworks products, which includes customers on our Freshdesk Omnichannel Suite and Freshsales Suite subscription plans counting as customers who purchased multiple products. These customers represented approximately 45% of our ARR as of June 30, 2021, illustrating the large opportunity we have to sell additional products to our current customer base and drive growth.

We continue to increase the number of customers that have entered into larger subscriptions with us. We had 1,164 customers each contributing $50,000 or more in ARR as of June 30, 2021, representing an increase of 79% year-over-year from 651 customers as of June 30, 2020. As of June 30, 2021, customers contributing more than $50,000 in ARR represented approximately 37% of total ARR. As of December 31, 2019 and 2020, we had 534 customers and 881 customers, respectively, contributing more than $50,000 in ARR demonstrating the appeal of our

We believe that our market remains largely underserved. We intend to invest aggressively in our direct and indirect sales and marketing capabilities, including investments in our outbound sales motion. We have been global from our earliest product sales and our global footprint continues to expand, with customers in more than 120 countries. During the year ended December 31, 2020, 45%, 40%, and 15% of our revenue was derived from customers in North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and the rest of the world, respectively. During the six months ended June 30, 2021, 42%, 42%, and 16% of our revenue was derived from customers in North America; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and the rest of the world, respectively. We have a significant opportunity to further expand globally. We plan to support more languages, recruit partners, hire sales and customer experience personnel in additional countries as needed, and expand our presence in countries where we already operate. A critical part of our go-to-market strategy has been our broad and diverse set of partners that enrich our offerings, scale our geographic coverage, and help us reach a broader audience than we would be able to reach on our own, thus amplifying our go-to-market investments. We plan to continue to invest in growing our partner ecosystem to fuel additional customer acquisition and expand use cases within our existing customer base.

We are also focused on attracting new talent and retaining our employees. Our culture is a critical part of our success, and attracting and retaining the best available talent will help us make customer delight easy and continue our growth trajectory.

We define our total customers contributing more than $5,000 in ARR as of a particular date as the number of business entities or individuals, represented by a unique domain or a unique email address, with one or more paid subscriptions to one or more of our products that contributed more than $5,000 in ARR.

Our net dollar retention rate measures our ability to increase revenue across our existing customer base through expansion of users and products associated with a customer as offset by our churn and contraction in the number of users and products associated with a customer. To calculate net dollar retention rate as of a particular date, we first determine “Entering ARR,” which is ARR from the population of our customers as of 12 months prior to the end of the reporting period. We then calculate the “Ending ARR” from the same set of customers as of the end of the reporting period. We then divide the Ending ARR by the Entering ARR to arrive at our net dollar retention rate. Ending ARR includes upsells, cross-sells, and renewals during the measurement period and is net of any contraction or attrition over this period.

For monthly subscriptions, we take the recurring revenue run-rate of such subscriptions for the last month of the period and multiply it by 12 to get to ARR. While monthly subscribers as a group have historically maintained or increased their subscriptions over time, there is no guarantee that any particular customer on a monthly subscription will renew its subscription in any given month, and therefore the calculation of ARR for these monthly subscriptions may not accurately reflect revenue to be received over a 12-month period from such customers, and net dollar retention rate may reflect a higher rate than the actual rate if customers on monthly subscriptions choose not to renew during the course of the 12 months. Monthly subscriptions represented 32%, 31%, 28%, and 26% of ARR as of December 31, 2019, June 30, 2020, December 31, 2020, and June 30, 2021, respectively. The net dollar retention rate for customers on monthly contracts has generally been lower than our overall net dollar retention rate.

We expect our net dollar retention rate to fluctuate in future periods due to a number of factors, including our expected growth, the level of penetration within our customer base, our ability to upsell and cross-sell products to existing customers, and our ability to retain our customers.

In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance: non-GAAP loss from operations, non-GAAP net loss, and free cash flow. We use these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures may be helpful to investors because they provide consistency and comparability with past financial performance.

Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations in their usefulness to investors and should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for financial information presented under GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures have no standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and are not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures as tools for comparison. As a result, our non-GAAP financial measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only.

We exclude the following items from one or more of our non-GAAP financial measures:

We define non-GAAP loss from operations as GAAP loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangibles, and acquisition-related expenses.

We define non-GAAP net loss as GAAP net loss excluding stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangibles, and acquisition-related expenses, net of their related tax effects.

The following tables present a reconciliation of our GAAP loss from operations to our non-GAAP loss from operations and our GAAP net loss to our non-GAAP net loss for each of the periods presented:

We define free cash flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, less purchases of property and equipment and capitalized internal-use software costs. We believe that free cash flow is a useful indicator of

The following table presents a reconciliation of free cash flow to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, the most directly comparable measure calculated in accordance with GAAP for each of the periods presented:

Substantially all of our revenue is derived from subscriptions, which comprises fees paid by customers for accessing our cloud-based software products during the term of the subscription. Subscription revenue is recognized ratably over the contract term beginning on the commencement date of each subscription, which is the date that the cloud-based software is made available to customers.

Professional services revenue comprises less than 5% of total revenue and includes fees charged for product configuration, data migration, systems integration, and training. Professional services revenue is recognized as services are performed.

Our subscription arrangements are available in monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual plans, and we typically invoice for the full term in advance. Our payment terms generally require the customers to pay the invoiced amount in advance or within 30 days from the invoice date. Our professional services are generally billed in advance along with the related subscription arrangements.

Cost of revenue consists primarily of personnel-related expenses (including salaries, related benefits, and stock-based compensation expense) for employees associated with our cloud-based infrastructure, payment gateway fees, voice, product support, and professional services organizations, as well as costs for hosting capabilities. Cost of revenue also includes third-party license fees, amortization of acquired technology intangibles, amortization of capitalized internal-use software, and allocation of general overhead costs such as facilities and information technology.

We expect our cost of revenue to continue to increase in dollar amount as we invest additional resources in our cloud-based infrastructure and customer experience and professional services organizations. However, our gross profit and gross margin may fluctuate from period to period and due to the timing and extent of our investments in third-party hosting capacity, expansion of our cloud-based infrastructure, and customer experience, and professional services organizations, as well as the amortization of costs associated with capitalized internal-use software.

We allocate shared costs, such as facilities costs (including rent, utilities, and depreciation on capital expenditures related to facilities shared by multiple departments), information technology costs, and certain administrative personnel costs to all departments based on headcount and location. Allocated shared costs are reflected in each of the expense categories described below, in addition to cost of revenue as described above.

We believe that continued investment in our products is important for our growth, and as such, we expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase in dollar amount while varying as a percentage of revenue in the future.

We expect to continue to make significant investments as we expand our customer acquisition and retention efforts and return to in-person marketing events and normal business travel as the impact of COVID-19 subsides. As a result, we expect that our sales and marketing expenses will continue to increase in dollar amount while varying as a percentage of revenue in the future.

We expect to incur significant additional general and administrative expenses as we transition from being privately held to a publicly traded company. Such expenses include professional services fees and consulting expenses, costs to broaden our IT related infrastructure, and expenses associated with ongoing compliance and reporting obligations pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as additional costs for accounting, insurance, and investor relations. As a result, we expect our general and administrative expenses to continue to increase in dollar amount for the foreseeable future, however, we expect it to decline as a percentage of revenue over the longer term. This percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending upon the timing and amount of our general and administrative expenses.

Interest and other income, net primarily consists of interest income from our investment portfolios, amortization of premium or discount on marketable securities, and foreign currency gains and losses.

Provision for income taxes consists primarily of income taxes related to U.S. States and foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. federal and state net deferred tax

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods presented:

During the year ended December 31, 2020, as described in Notes 11 and 12 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, we facilitated certain secondary equity transactions.

In 2020, an investor, also a member of our Board of Directors at that time, sold shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock to a new investor at prices per share in excess of the fair value per share of the shares sold. The aggregate excess value of $10.8 million paid by the new investor was recognized as stock-based compensation expense in general and administrative expense. We further recognized as stock-based compensation expense $32.4 million of excess value for the repurchase of common stock from our founders and employees, of which $16.5 million and $15.9 million were recorded in general and administrative expense and research and development expense, respectively. We refer to these secondary transactions together as the “2020 Equity Transactions.”

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods presented, as a percentage of revenue:

Revenue increased by $58.4 million, or 53%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. Of the total increase in revenue, $22.0 million, or 20%, was attributable to revenue from new customers acquired during the 12 months ended June 30, 2021, net of contraction and churn, and $36.4 million, or 33%, was attributable to revenue from existing customers as of June 30, 2020, net of contraction and churn. Our net dollar retention rate of 118% as of June 30, 2021 reflects the expansion in usage of our products from existing customers and the sale of additional products to these customers.

Cost of revenue increased by $11.5 million, or 48%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The higher cost of revenue was primarily due to increases of $2.9 million in cloud voice service costs, $2.7 million in third-party hosting costs, $2.6 million in personnel-related costs primarily related to an increase in headcount, $1.2 million in professional fees, $0.9 million in software license fees, and $0.8 million in gateway charges due to the increase in sales. Our gross margin increased during the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020, as we increased our revenue and realized benefits from economies of scale primarily related to our third-party hosting costs.

The increases in our operating expenses in the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020 were primarily headcount driven, as we substantially grew our business to 4,141 employees as of June 30, 2021 compared to 3,074 employees as of June 30, 2020.

Research and development expense decreased by $5.5 million, or 14%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. This decrease was primarily due to the absence in the latest quarter of stock-based compensation expense of $15.9 million, associated with the 2020 Equity Transactions described above, partially offset by increases of $9.0 million in personnel-related costs primarily related to an increase in headcount, $0.8 million in software license fees, and $0.6 million in professional fees.

Sales and marketing expense increased by $30.2 million, or 49%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The higher sales and marketing expense was primarily due to increases of $16.8 million in personnel-related costs, $10.8 million in advertising, branding, and event costs, $2.6 million in reseller commissions, and $1.8 million in software license fees. This was partially offset by a decrease of $1.2 million in travel costs as a result of the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and curtailment of in-person marketing events and travel.

General and administrative expense decreased by $22.4 million, or 58%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. This decrease was primarily due to the absence in the latest quarter of stock-based compensation expense of $27.3 million associated with the 2020 Equity Transactions described above, partially offset by increases of $4.0 million in personnel-related costs, $0.7 million in transaction taxes, and $0.5 million in professional services fees, comprised primarily of legal, accounting, and consulting fees.

Interest and other (expense) income, net increased by $0.9 million, or 234%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021, when compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The increase is primarily due to a $1.4 million benefit from the release of interest and penalties accrued for indirect taxes and a $0.6 million favorable foreign exchange movement in the U.S. dollar, partially offset by a $0.9 million decrease in interest income earned from lower balances maintained in our marketable securities portfolios.

We are subject to federal and state income taxes in the United States and taxes in foreign jurisdictions. For the six months ended June 30, 2020 and June 30, 2021, we recorded a provision for income taxes of $4.0 million and $2.2 million on loss before taxes of $53.2 million and $7.6 million, respectively. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. federal and state net deferred tax assets as it was more likely than not that those deferred tax assets will not be realized. The $1.8 million decrease in tax expense resulted primarily from the mix of earnings from our foreign entities and the income tax effect on non-deductible stock-based compensation expense.

Revenue increased by $77.3 million, or 45%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. Of the total increase in revenue, $31.1 million, or 18%, was attributable to revenue from new customers acquired during the year ended December 31, 2020, net of contraction and churn, and $46.2 million, or 27%, was attributable to revenue from existing customers as of December 31, 2019, net of contraction and churn. Our net dollar retention rate of 111% for the year ended December 31, 2020 reflects the expansion within existing customers and the sale of additional products to these customers.

Cost of revenue increased by $16.0 million, or 44%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to increases of $5.5 million in third-party hosting costs, $2.7 million in amortization of costs associated with acquired technology intangibles, $2.8 million in personnel-related costs due to higher headcount, $1.5 million in cloud voice service costs, $1.4 million in software license fees and $1.0 million increase in professional fees including legal costs. Our gross margin remained consistent at 79% for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020.

The increases in our operating expenses in the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 were primarily headcount driven, as we substantially grew our business to 3,585 employees as of December 31, 2020 compared to 2,691 employees as of December 31, 2019.

Research and development expense increased by $30.7 million, or 79%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to a $15.9 million increase in stock-based compensation expense recognized in connection with the 2020 Equity Transactions described above, and increases of $12.8 million in personnel-related costs and $2.4 million in software license fees.

Sales and marketing expense increased by $22.2 million, or 20%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to increases of $24.7 million in personnel-related costs, $3.3 million in reseller commissions, $1.9 million in rental of premises, $1.8 million in software license fees, and $1.3 million in other individually immaterial costs, partially offset by decreases of $6.2 million in marketing costs and $4.6 million in travel costs. The decrease in marketing costs and travel was a direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and curtailment of in-person marketing events and travel.

General and administrative expense increased by $34.9 million, or 219%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to $27.4 million in stock-based compensation expense recognized in connection with the 2020 Equity Transactions and increases of $4.5 million in personnel-related costs, and $2.8 million in professional services fees, comprised primarily of legal, accounting, and consulting fees.

Interest income increased by $2.9 million, or 230%, primarily due to a full year of interest earned from higher balances of our investment portfolios during the year ended December 31, 2020, when compared to a partial year of interest earned during the year ended December 31, 2019. Other income (expense), net, decreased by $2.3 million, or 252%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, primarily due to increases of $1.4 million in premiums amortized on marketable securities and other insignificant items.

We are subject to federal and state income taxes in the United States and taxes in foreign jurisdictions. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020, we recorded provision for income taxes of $3.6 million and $4.0 million on loss before taxes of $27.5 million and $53.3 million, respectively. The effective tax rate for the years ended December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020 were (13)% and (7)% respectively. The effective tax rates differ from the statutory rate primarily as a result of providing no benefit on pre-tax losses incurred in the United States. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. federal and state net deferred tax assets as it was more likely than not that those deferred tax assets will not be realized. The $0.4 million increase in tax expense resulted primarily from an increase in pre-tax earnings in our foreign jurisdictions.

The following tables summarize our selected unaudited quarterly consolidated statements of operations data and the percentage of revenue that each line item represents for each of the 10 quarters in the period ended June 30, 2021. The information for each of these quarters has been prepared on the same basis as our audited annual consolidated financial statements and reflect, in the opinion of management, all adjustments of a normal, recurring nature that are necessary for the fair statement of the results of operations for these periods. This data should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future.