Girish Mathrubootham has announced his decision to step down as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Freshworks, a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) company and will now take on the role of executive chairman.

Dennis Woodside, the president, will succeed him as the new CEO. Woodside joined Freshworks as president in 2022, with prior professional stints including the ones as President at Impossible Foods, chief operating officer (COO) at Dropbox and CEO at Motorola Mobility.

Mr Mathrubootham was excited to be taking on the new role. He said in a statement that he was looking “forward to continuing to serve Freshworks” and will continue to “focus on our long-term product vision and AI, spending more time with our teams in India, and being a trusted advisor to Dennis."

Mr Mathrubootham, the founder of Freshworks, started the company in Chennai in 2010 and transformed it into a major force in the SaaS industry. The company is now headquartered in San Mateo, California.

Prior to this, Mathrubootham held positions at companies such as Zoho Corporation, AdventNet Inc., eForce, and HCL Cisco ODC.

He led Freshworks through an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq in September 2021, marking it as the first India-born SaaS firm to trade on a US exchange.

During his tenure, Freshworks expanded its global reach, serving over 67,000 customers worldwide. The company now has a workforce of approximately 4,900 employees across 13 global locations, according to his statement.

Mr Mathrubootham revealed that he "brought Dennis (Woodside) on board" initially so he could help him in creating "an ambitious growth plan." He hoped that Mr Woodside would eventually lead the team, allowing Mr Mathrubootham to spend time on "the long-term product vision, innovation, and AI strategy."

In the first 3 months of this year, Freshworks made USD 165 million in revenue -- 20% more than the same period last year. Their profit, excluding certain expenses, increased to USD 21.8 million from USD 3.9 million last year. They also had more cash on hand, with USD 38.7 million compared to USD 9.1 million a year ago.

"Together, we have built a remarkable company, and together, we will continue to build an even brighter future," Mr Mathrubootham said, signing off.

Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam (Shan) Krishnasamy, Freshworks offers a suite of software for customer service and support, customer engagement and IT service management. The company went public in 2021.

Freshworks offers an IT service management product called Freshservice, which assists businesses with employee onboarding and management. The company, which once targeted a valuation of nearly USD 10 billion for its initial public offering, has seen its stock price lose more than 60% from its peak in 2021.

Article Source - FreshWorks