Freshworks

Mid-market leader in customer support and CRM SaaS, competing with Zendesk, Salesforce, and ServiceNow with a value-oriented, easy-to-deploy alternative

Freshworks is a global SaaS company founded in 2010 in Chennai, India, and now headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company offers a broad suite of cloud-based business software products designed to improve customer engagement, employee productivity, and IT operations. Its flagship products include Freshdesk (customer support), Freshservice (IT service management), Freshsales (CRM), and Freshchat (conversational messaging), all built on a unified platform called the Freshworks Customer Service Suite. Freshworks targets businesses of all sizes, from SMBs to large enterprises, with a freemium-to-paid model that lowers the barrier to entry. The company differentiates itself through ease of use, fast deployment, and competitive pricing compared to legacy players like Salesforce and ServiceNow. Its AI-powered assistant, Freddy AI, is embedded across products to automate workflows, surface insights, and enhance agent productivity. While not a pure-play AdTech company, Freshworks is relevant to the broader marketing and customer engagement ecosystem through its CRM, marketing automation, and customer data capabilities. The company went public on NASDAQ in September 2021 and has grown to serve over 60,000 customers across more than 120 countries, making it one of the most prominent SaaS companies to emerge from India.