Freshworks Inc.
Company History
Freshworks History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2010 in San Mateo, California
When was Freshworks founded?
Freshworks was founded in 2010 in San Mateo, California by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, making it 16 years old.
- Founded
- 2010
- Founding place
- San Mateo, California
- Founders
- Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy
- Headquarters today
- San Mateo, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 11 (2010–2026)
- Current CEO
- Dennis Woodside
- Acquisitions
- 3
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Freshdesk Founded in Chennai |
| 2011 | First Customer Won & Accel Seed Funding |
| 2014 | Launch of Freshservice ITSM |
| 2016 | Freshsales Launched |
| 2017 | Company Rebranded to Freshworks |
| 2018 | San Mateo Headquarters and Unicorn Status |
| 2021 | Historic NASDAQ IPO Raising $1.03 Billion |
| 2023 | Launch of Freddy AI Generative Suite |
| 2024 | Dennis Woodside Appointed CEO |
| 2025 | First GAAP Operating Profit; Founder Exits |
| 2026 | Record Q2 and Raised Outlook |
- Where was Freshworks founded?
- Freshworks was founded in San Mateo, California in 2010.
- Who founded Freshworks?
- Freshworks was founded by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy.
- When did Freshworks start?
- Freshworks was founded in 2010.
- How old is Freshworks?
- Freshworks is 16 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
In 2010 Girish Mathrubootham, then a product manager at Zoho's ManageEngine unit in Chennai, had a frustrating experience getting a damaged television replaced after a move from the US. Around the same time he read a Hacker News thread about Zendesk raising prices. He and ManageEngine colleague Shan Krishnasamy left Zoho and built Freshdesk, a lower-cost cloud helpdesk, launching it in 2011.
Founders
Girish Mathrubootham
Girish Mathrubootham co-founded Freshdesk (later Freshworks) in Chennai in 2010 and served as CEO until May 2024, leading the company through its September 2021 NASDAQ IPO. He then became Executive Chairman and left the company and its board on December 1, 2025 to focus on Together Fund, the venture firm he co-founded. Girish Mathrubootham was born in 1975.
Shan Krishnasamy
Shan Krishnasamy co-founded Freshdesk in 2010 and served as its chief technology officer, building the original product and the Chennai engineering team that underpinned Freshworks' growth. He later stepped back from the company. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Freshdesk Founded in Chennai
Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy founded Freshdesk in an 800 sq ft office in Chennai, building an affordable cloud customer ticketing system.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFirst Customer Won & Accel Seed Funding
Launched Freshdesk commercially and raised a $1 million Series A led by Accel India.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunch of Freshservice ITSM
Introduced Freshservice to provide internal IT helpdesk and service management, which rapidly expanded into its largest enterprise revenue engine.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCompany Rebranded to Freshworks
Rebranded from Freshdesk to Freshworks to reflect its multi-product suite spanning customer support, IT service, and sales CRM.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSan Mateo Headquarters and Unicorn Status
Raised a $100 million round led by Accel and Sequoia Capital at a valuation reported above $1.5 billion, and set up headquarters in San Mateo, California.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHistoric NASDAQ IPO Raising $1.03 Billion
Listed on NASDAQ under ticker FRSH on September 22, 2021, raising about $1.03 billion; shares closed the first day with a market value above $12 billion.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunch of Freddy AI Generative Suite
Unveiled Freddy AI, embedding generative AI across Freshservice and Freshdesk to automate ticket summaries, responses, and routine IT tasks.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDennis Woodside Appointed CEO
President Dennis Woodside became CEO in May 2024, with founder Girish Mathrubootham moving to Executive Chairman. Freshworks also agreed to acquire IT asset discovery company Device42.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFirst GAAP Operating Profit; Founder Exits
Revenue reached $838.8 million with GAAP operating income of $13.2 million. Girish Mathrubootham left the board on December 1, 2025 and Roxanne Austin became Chair.
Source: freshworks.comRecord Q2 and Raised Outlook
Q2 2026 revenue rose 16% to $237.4 million and full-year guidance was raised to $963.5M-$966.5M, after a May 2026 restructuring that cut about 500 jobs.
Source: freshworks.comMajor Acquisitions
AnsweriQ
2020Acquired Seattle-based artificial intelligence and natural language processing startup AnsweriQ to embed algorithmic customer service automation and auto-triage directly into Freshdesk and Freshchat.
Flint
2020Acquired IT orchestration and workflow automation platform Flint to dramatically bolster Freshservice with no-code hybrid-cloud IT automation.
Zarget
2017Acquired website conversion rate optimization and heatmapping startup Zarget to launch Freshmarketer for digital marketing teams.
Keep researching Freshworks
Freshworks Company History FAQ
When was Freshworks (originally Freshdesk) founded and where was its first office located?
Freshworks was founded as Freshdesk in October 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy in a small 700-square-foot office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, launching its cloud customer service ticketing software in 2011.
When did Freshdesk launch Freshservice and enter the IT service management (ITSM) market?
In 2014, Freshdesk launched Freshservice, a cloud-based IT service desk and asset management solution designed to provide internal corporate IT teams with an intuitive alternative to complex legacy ITSM platforms.
When did the company officially rebrand from Freshdesk to Freshworks?
In June 2017, the company changed its corporate name to Freshworks Inc. to reflect its evolution into a multi-product enterprise software suite encompassing customer support, ITSM, CRM, and conversational messaging.
When did Freshworks establish its global headquarters in San Mateo, California?
In 2018, Freshworks established its primary corporate headquarters in San Mateo, California, while maintaining its primary global engineering, product development, and operational workforce in Chennai, India.
When did Freshworks complete its historic initial public offering on the NASDAQ?
On September 22, 2021, Freshworks made history by becoming the first Indian SaaS company to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange (ticker: 'FRSH'), raising $1.03 billion at a valuation of $12.2 billion.
When did Freshworks launch its native generative AI engine Freddy AI?
In 2023, Freshworks introduced Freddy AI across its entire product portfolio, unveiling Freddy Copilot, Freddy Self-Service, and Freddy Insights to bring generative AI productivity to service agents and IT managers.
What major leadership transition occurred at Freshworks in May 2024?
In May 2024, Dennis Woodside was appointed Chief Executive Officer and President, with founder Girish Mathrubootham transitioning to Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
How has Freshworks shaped the global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry?
From a modest 6-person startup in Chennai in 2010, Freshworks evolved into a global NASDAQ-listed enterprise software leader serving about 70,000 businesses worldwide, proving that high-quality, human-centric software can be built anywhere and scaled globally.
How did Freshworks start?
Freshworks (originally Freshdesk) was founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy in Chennai, India. The legendary origin story is that Mathrubootham bought a TV that broke during shipping. After fighting a massive, terrible customer service loop for months, he realized legacy helpdesk software was completely broken and decided to build a better one.
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