Girish Mathrubootham to exit Freshworks, 15 years after founding the SaaS major

Girish Mathrubootham, who founded Nasdaq-listed software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Freshworks in 2010, will step down as executive chairman effective December 1, 2025, marking the end of a 15-year journey that transformed the Chennai-born startup into a global SaaS player.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mathrubootham wrote, “After 15 years, I’m stepping down as Executive Chairman of Freshworks effective from December 1st 2025. What started in Chennai grew into a global SaaS company on Nasdaq — thanks to an amazing team & customers.”



In May 2024, Mathrubootham transitioned from CEO to executive chairman of the San Mateo- and Chennai-headquartered firm, handing over the CEO role to Dennis Woodside, the former chief operating officer of Dropbox and ex-CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Beginning December 1, Freshworks’ current lead independent director, Roxanne Austin, will take over as chair of the board. “G’s passion and entrepreneurial courage led to the creation of this special company and we honor his decision to step away from an official Freshworks role to spend more time mentoring and investing in founders just like him through the Together Fund,” the company said in a statement.


Austin, who has served as the lead independent director of Freshworks since May 2021, is also on the boards of cybersecurity company Crowdstrike and telecommunications company Verizon. According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mathrubootham will work with Austin to ensure a smooth transition.

“Mathrubootham’s resignation was not the result of any disagreement on matters relating to the Company’s operations, policies, or practices. Effective December 1, 2025, the size of the Board will be reduced to nine members and the total number of Class III directors will be reduced to two members,” the filing added.

In December 2024, ET reported that Mathrubootham sold around $40 million worth of Freshworks stock, citing personal financial planning, though he reaffirmed belief in the company’s long-term trajectory. He sold 2.5 million shares across two tranches on December 18 and 19, 2024.

Also Read: What Girish Mathrubootham’s exit reveals about Freshworks

What next

The Freshworks founder said he will now steer his attention towards the Together Fund, the venture capital firm he cofounded with Eka Software founder Manav Garg, and mentoring. “Next, I’ll focus on Together Fund & AI startups, working towards India’s dream of becoming a Product Nation,” he added in his social media post.

Together Fund was launched in 2021 with a corpus of $85-million with a key focus on backing early-stage software startups being built in India or by Indian founders. In July 2023, it announced a second fund with a $150 million corpus.

Together has made 31 investments across its two funds and will back another 19-20 startups in the AI segment from the second fund, Garg told ET in March.

At the SaaSBoomi event in Chennai in March, Mathrubootham highlighted the potential of AI as even more promising than SaaS. He described AI and AI agents as a $1 trillion opportunity, compared to the $300 billion enterprise software market, arguing that even capturing 2% of that would represent a monumental leap for India.

“AI is exciting and scary at the same time… it’s exciting because we are disrupting industries; it’s scary because we’re disrupting our own industry,” he said. He asserted that SaaS may be obsolete in its current form, but enterprise software endures—and those who adapt with AI will survive, while others will be disrupted.

Rise to IPO and stock journey

• Freshworks went public on September 22, 2021, pricing its IPO at $36 a share, above the marketed range of $32–34.
• The stock jumped about 33% on its debut to $48, pushing the market capitalisation close to $13 billion.
• As of September 5, 2025, the stock closed trading at $13.01, a sharp decline from its IPO peak.

For the quarter ended June 2025, Freshworks reported an 18% year-on-year rise in revenue to $204.7 million, aided by lower expenses and growing adoption of its AI-powered solutions. The company's net loss narrowed to $1.7 million from $20.1 million a year ago. Freshworks projected 11–12% revenue growth for the September quarter, estimating revenue in the $207–210 million range.

Founded in Chennai in 2010, Freshworks initially targeted small and medium businesses (SMBs) with customer and employee experience products but has since expanded to mid-market and enterprise clients to offset macroeconomic pressures in its SMB base. As of June, it had more than 74,000 customers across 120 countries in industries such as ecommerce, logistics, financial services, automotive, manufacturing, entertainment, and hospitality.

Mathrubootham’s move also signals a significant shift in India’s SaaS ecosystem, where early pioneers who showed that global products could be built from India are now stepping aside to mentor and fund the next wave of founders, especially in the AI space.