History
Freshworks was founded in 2010 by former Zoho employees Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy in Chennai, India, as Freshdesk.[8][9] The company moved their headquarters to San Mateo, California, in 2018.[4] The company focuses on developing cloud-based customer service software and has undergone multiple rounds of funding from investors such as Accel, Tiger Global Management, and Sequoia Capital.[10]
Freshworks acquired three other companies, 1CLICK.io, Konotor, and Frilp, in 2015.[11] In 2016, the company launched its second product, Freshsales, a customer relationship management (CRM) software.[12]
In 2014, it launched Freshservice, an ITSM that offers software and hardware asset management, incident management, and service request tracking services.[13]
In 2017, Freshdesk changed its name to Freshworks Inc.[14]
In 2020 Zoho accused Freshworks of stealing Zoho's intellectual property, and the lawsuit was settled in 2021.[15]
Freshworks acquired Device42, an American IT-management firm, for $230 million in May 2024.[16][17] In the same month, Mathrubootham transitioned to the role of executive chairman, with Dennis Woodside succeeding him as CEO.[16][18]
In December 2025, Freshworks agreed to acquire FireHydrant, an incident management platform powered by artificial intelligence, to expand its IT service management portfolio; the acquisition closed in January 2026.[19][20] Freshworks reported 2025 as its first GAAP-profitable year, with net income of $183.7 million on revenue of $838.8 million.[20]
In March 2026, the company appointed Ian Tickle as chief revenue officer.[21][22]
In April 2026, the company introduced a new product called ITAM (short for "IT Asset Management"), which manages a company's entire technology stack. It replaced their existing tool, now renamed "IT Asset Management- Classic"[23], and was made available to a part of the company's userbase.[24][25]
