The Exchanges

Q And take us through the journey of how you prepared, like, first of all, internally yourself. What are the discussions between the founders? And then how you talk to the team and investors that, you know, taking public is the right path to go. And then what are the preparations needed to do it?

A Funnily, you know, we had actually thought about that listing is a good option when we were starting the company. And that is one of the reasons why we also had the HQ of the company in India, though we are a global platform. So, 70% of our revenue is still international. But we did realize that, you know, our base will always be India. Like our team currently is entirely based out of India. And then we will probably hit the listed market Some point in time in the journey of the company. Probably when we started, we actually took that decision of having the HQ in India and building the whole team and, you know, everything from here, like make in India, though it's a global customer base. And end of 20 20 is when we actually started to work on the listing process seriously, because, uh, you know, the markets looked sort of very conducive. So December, 20 20 is when we actually thought about internally, we decided, you know, let's Start the process. And by the time you finalize, you start working, you know, like in listing process, you have to work with some set of intermediaries, especially a banker, then the legal counsels, et cetera. So that we finalized by March of 2021. And then it took us about three to four months to do the DRHP filing. You have to do the DRHP filing. You have to move to, you know, NDS accounting format, et cetera. So there are some of the things which are…

AI assessment note: “end of 20 20 is when we actually started to work on the listing process”

Q Yeah, that will be like the Dhirubhai Ambani moment for you guys. And was it difficulty convincing your VCs that, hey, we want to go IPO right now and not once we hit like more milestones in our revenue journey or customer journeys?

A So in terms of the investors, you know, I think we've worked with the investors from early on and we raised our first fundraise nine years back, first institution seven years back. So there was already a lot of history that was there. So I think That was the easier part. On the other part, you know, when you say, you know, when is a good time to actually hit the markets, another thing in addition to the revenue, another thing which I realized that the Indian public markets also really likes is the profitability. So they want you to, you know, hit the market when you have a clear path to profitability or you've already become profitable. And that is also one of the reasons why when we actually started the process is when we had actually turned cashflow positive. So we started the preparation of there because, uh, you know, at that time it was sort of Fairly clear to us from all the people that we had spoken to is that Indian public market sort of, you know, likes profitable stories like companies with good bottom line. And in our case, we had actually turned cashflow positive much earlier than bottom line positive because, you know, we do cash collection upfront, we have a prepaid billing, et cetera. So even last year, if you were to see, you know, that was sort of cashflow positive. So I think in our thing, what I realized is a good time to sort of, you know, hit and what also …

AI assessment note: “there was already a lot of history... So I think That was the easier part.”

Q And I would like to ask you, right, who are the mentors, Or people you took advice from to go IPO, right? I remember, you know, once Abhishek and I had a discussion connecting with Nitish Mitrasen from Nazara and who are the other people that helped you and what are the help required externally? They say it can be validation. It can be processes to get the path right.

A If you look at our private market journey, we were fortunate to have had sort of backing from some of the investors who had seen the public markets. So for instance, in US, we had an angel investor who had been on the board of a lot of companies who had listed in US. So obviously US is a much deeper market. A lot of companies have, you know, seen that journey. So that was a very good learning experience here. Obviously we are fortunate to have had the backing of Mr. Nandan Nilekni, who also seen the whole sort of journey. So I think advice from those people were very handy, seeing it firsthand of what, you know, they have seen the private to public journey and seeing that years in public life and how, you know, as a company, what maturity you need to reach to be able to sort of run the good publicly listed company. That was very helpful. In addition to that, we obviously took advice from a lot of People who have seen in the venture ecosystem, actually there are only a limited set of companies like venture backed companies who have IPO. So we also obviously took advice from, you know, a lot of people who have seen this journey in India. Good part is that that's an increasing set. So, you know, probably earlier there were less than like four or five people who you could probably speak to, to get this experience firsthand. And the good part is that, you know, that's probably incre…

AI assessment note: “we are fortunate to have had the backing of Mr. Nandan Nilekni”

Q of complete uncertainty. And as you like, you know, went and prepared in 2022 to go public this year, the global markets melted down. And today in the US, good SaaS companies at two hundred million annual revenues are trading at two X, four hundred million of valuation. So did it deter you? Were there any fears in this process that they might be? The 22 market is not right.

A So I think in terms of the market timing, you can perhaps time it to some extent, but not to a lot of extent, because this process itself is, you know, at least even if you do it very smoothly, it still takes about, you know, six months from the time you start the process to you hitting the market. So you can perhaps take a bet, like, you know, your business is ready, and the direction wise, you are getting sort of good traction, you know, when you're speaking to investors, you are getting a good traction initially, you know, initially you spend a lot of I mean, meeting the institutional investors, obviously, and you get sort of a good feedback from there. So I think once these two things are there that, you know, your business is ready, and then you are also getting good feedback from investors. That is probably the time that you can plan for. Otherwise, uh, you know, where the markets will be at the end, it's a little difficult to time because, you know, it's anyone's guess, you know, how the market will be probably six months from now. So the process itself is, you know, at least takes, uh, like two quarters or so.

AI assessment note: “where the markets will be at the end, it's a little difficult to time”

Q So Abhishek and Neha, can you share the feelings that you went through? What was the rollercoaster ride of emotions? Was it? Fear, joy, whatever these. And you guys will also become like very young parents. Your kid is one year old. So it's like first kid is graduating and now you have your second kid.

A It's a great journey to have gone through the whole thing. One is, you know, you keep thinking as an aspiration that you as a company, I would say, see, if you, uh, you as a company, if you want to continue to build it for decades, if you feel that the market is very deep, then obviously getting listed as one of the top options that you have if you're building a company. And, uh, you know, to finally, you know, from the thought of getting listed to You know, having closed the whole loop, obviously, that's a very exciting journey, I would say. And I realized that there are so many stakeholders that, you know, work in this whole process, you know, being from bankers to legal councils to both India, international, et cetera. Such a, you know, huge amount of work that goes behind the scenes to making that possible. And, uh, you know, to finally, you know, move to the other line. I think that is the very exciting thing. Everyone's sort of effort sort of paying off, culminating into the offer being closing and, you know, you getting listed So I think that was the whole, you know, thing which was interesting in the last one year that so many things had to sort of work, you know, in tandem for you to, you know, sort of getting listed.

AI assessment note: “from the thought of getting listed to You know, having closed the whole loop, obviously, that's a very exciting journey”

Q And did you think that, you know, if, If COVID wouldn't have happened or the markets wouldn't have melted, you would have gone IPO sooner?

A Looking back, I think we were able to do it at a fairly good pace. So it was glad that, you know, everything sort of worked out, like the market environment, et cetera, also worked out. I think right now, obviously, like if you compare it to last year, markets are fairly, you know, lower in that sense, that's there. But I think there is still sort of demand for, I would say, good companies or, you know, good assets, which is still there. So I think, uh, looking back, You know, I think we are fairly glad at the pace at which we were able to sort of execute from the time that we, you know, first started thinking.

AI assessment note: “Looking back, I think we were able to do it at a fairly good pace.”