Girish Mathrubootham – Founder and CEO of Freshworks

Girish Mathrubootham – Founder and CEO of Freshworks 

Girish Mathrubootham is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist. In addition, he is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, a cloud-based software company that offers customer relationship management (CRM) software, help desk software, live chat software, and many other services. 

Early life 

Girish Mathrubootham was born on 29 March 1975 in Tamil Nadu, India. Mathrubootham was raised in a middle-class family. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Madras University in 1990 and a master’s degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 1992. Mathrubootham moved to the United States in 1995 to pursue a career in venture capital. He later co-founded a number of successful tech startups, including Freshworks, which he launched in 2010. 

 Career 

Mathrubootham started his career as a software engineer at the age of 20 and worked for various companies before starting his own venture. In 1999, he co-founded Valyoo Technologies, a web-based software company, where he served as the CEO for six years. In 2005, he co-founded Zoho Corporation, a cloud-based business software company, where he served as the vice president of engineering until 2009. 

In 2010, Mathrubootham left his job as Vice President to start Freshdesk (now Freshworks) with his friend and colleague Shan Krishnasamy. The company was launched in Chennai, India, and provided cloud-based customer support software to businesses. Freshworks offers a suite of products including Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales, and Freshchat that help businesses manage customer support, IT services, sales, and messaging. The company has over 50,000 customers worldwide and has raised more than $250 million in funding. 

Philanthropist 

• Mathrubootham has also contributed to various disaster relief efforts in India. In 2021, he donated $500,000 to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund to aid relief efforts following the devastation caused by Cyclone Gaja in the state. 
• Mathrubootham is a member of the board of advisors for Sankara Nethralaya, a Chennai-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides eye care services to the underprivileged. He has also donated to other NGOs focused on education and social welfare. 
• In 2019, Mathrubootham donated $1.5 million to his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), to set up the “Freshworks Centre for Advanced Research” at the institute. The center focuses on research in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. 
• In 2021, Mathrubootham donated $1 million to Anna University, another leading engineering institution in Chennai, to establish the “Freshworks School of Entrepreneurship”. The school aims to promote entrepreneurship among engineering students and provide them with the necessary skills and resources to start their own businesses. 

Girish Mathrubootham’s Path to Success 

While working at Zoho, Mathrubootham realized that there was a need for affordable and easy-to-use customer support software for small and medium-sized businesses. He decided to start his own company to fill this gap in the market. 

In 2010, Mathrubootham quit his job at Zoho and with a small team of developers he founded Freshworks which is formerly known as Freshdesk. The company initially focused on providing cloud-based customer support software and quickly gained traction with customers. Over the years, Freshworks expanded its product offerings to include IT service management, sales, and messaging software. The company also grew rapidly, attracting millions of dollars in funding and expanding its workforce to over 4,000 employees across the world. 

Under his leadership, Freshworks has grown to become one of the leading customer engagement software providers, serving over 50,000 customers worldwide and has also received numerous awards and recognitions. The company has raised over $400 million in funding from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Tiger Global Management. 

Networth 

As of February 2023, Girish Mathrubootham has an estimated net worth of $700 million. 

Interesting Facts about Girish Mathrubootham 

• He is an advocate for gender diversity and has implemented policies at Freshworks to ensure a more inclusive and diverse workplace.  
• Mathrubootham is a cricket enthusiast and played the sport in his younger days.  
• He has spoken at several conferences and events, including the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit and the Fortune Global Forum.  
• He is well-known on Twitter for his humorous and witty tweets. 
• In addition to his philanthropic efforts, Mathrubootham is also an angel investor and has invested in several startups, including Indian edtech company Unacademy. 

ACHIEVEMENTS AND AWARDS 

• Freshworks was named one of Business Today’s Coolest Start-ups in 2016. 
• Mathrubootham was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence. 
• Freshworks was named to Forbes Cloud 100 list in 2019, 2020, and 2021.  
• Freshworks was named one of India’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2020.  
• Freshworks was named to Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing companies in America in 2021.