Girish Mathrubootham retires from Freshworks to focus on Together Fund

Mathrubootham has led the company since its inception in 2010 and spearheaded its initial public offering in 2021

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Girish Mathrubootham, the founder of Freshworks, will step down as executive chairman of the global SaaS company on December 1 to devote his time to Together Fund, a venture fund he cofounded.

 

Mathrubootham, a pioneer of the Indian software as a service ecosystem, helmed Freshworks after its inception in 2010 and led its initial public offering in 2021. He gave notice of his exit on Wednesday and the board appointed Roxanne Austin, lead independent director, to serve as its chairperson starting December 1.

 

Mathrubootham will work with Austin for a smooth transition of board leadership. “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," said Freshworks in a stock exchange filing.

 

Mathrubootham, Manav Garg, founder of Eka Software, and Shubham Gupta, who led SaaS deals at venture capital firm Matrix Partners India, founded Together Fund in 2021. It has more than $200 million worth of assets under management and pitched as an “AI-first venture capital fund in the US-India corridor”.

 

Austin has been lead independent director at Freshworks’ board since May 2021. She also serves on the boards of CrowdStrike and Verizon, where she chairs audit committees, and AbbVie, where she is lead independent director. She previously served on the boards of Abbott, Ericsson, Target, and Teledyne.

 

The leadership transition marks a new era for Freshworks, which was one of India’s first SaaS companies to go public in the US (in 2021) and has quickly adopted artificial intelligence. Revenue in the second quarter of 2025 grew 18 per cent to $204.7 million, from $174.1 million the previous year. Net loss dipped 91 per cent to $1.7 million.