Salesforce Rival Freshworks Fuels IPO Rumors; Taps SaaS Veteran Tyler Sloat as CFO

Freshworks is fueling its IPO ambition in 2020, after announcing a very encouraging annual revenue numbers.

The Freshworks IPO moment remains the most-awaited MarTech event — and longer it waits, stronger the speculations about Freshworks ongoing funding plans get. Maybe that’s why, to attract investors through IPO, Freshworks has announced a new CFO, when companies are actually dropping their hiring and headhunting strategies. In February, the company had acquired AnswerIQ.

The company, which is known for its aggressive Marketing campaigns in the MarTech space, chose to hire a new Chief Financial Officer on the heels of surpassing $200 million in annual recurring revenue. Zuora’s former CFO Tyler Sloat will now report at Freshworks. Tyler’s appointment will enable Freshworks to maintain sustainable growth across its customer segments, overseeing all the Accounting, Finance, Legal and IT functions.

Tyler comes with a commendable SaaS Financial experience. As Zuora’s CFO, he was responsible for guiding the subscription payments leader from start-up through successful IPO and subsequent quarters as a public company. Prior to Zuora, Sloat held executive finance roles at a variety of companies including NetApp Inc. and Siebel Systems, Inc.

Freshworks will expect Tyler to repeat the feat for them in 2020, even as the CRM maker has already forecasted the markets will change dramatically in the coming weeks.

Founded in 2010, Freshwhworks has raised $399 million in 8 funding rounds. The last funding round led by Accel and Sequoia Capital, the company drew in $150 million (November 2019).

“We are seeing increased demand for products that better automate customer support and IT services while helping teams work better remotely during this critical time.” – Tyler Sloat, Freshworks Chief Financial Officer.

At the time of this announcement, Girish Mathrubootham, Freshworks Founder and CEO said –

“As we emerge from this new era, Freshworks will rally in support of businesses to help them navigate changing customer expectations and behaviors.”

Girish added, “Tyler brings a strong performance record, financial acumen, and strategic insight which is requisite to running a disciplined business model that also accelerates our ability to achieve a billion dollars in revenue in the coming years.”

Currently, Freshworks provides innovative customer engagement software for businesses of all sizes, making it easy for teams to acquire, close, and keep their customers for life. Freshworks SaaS products provide a 360-degree view of the customer, are ready to go, easy to use, and offer a quick return on investment.

We would keep you updated about Freshworks’ next steps in the MarTech and customer support industry.