Freshworks' VP and India head Karthik Rajaram quits, joins Elastic India

Karthik Rajaram quits Freshworks

Freshworks India country head Karthik Rajaram is leaving the company to join software firm Elastic as the general manager of its India unit, marking yet another instance of an Indian top-level executive leaving the Nasdaq-listed SaaS firm.

Rajaram, who resigned from Freshworks in March, will be Elastic India's area vice president and general manager. Rajaram joined Freshworks in 2017 as the senior director of global sales development. His previous stints were in Salesforce and Microsoft.

"I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Area Vice President & General Manager, India at Elastic," he wrote on LinkedIn on April 2.

Freshworks has been witnessing several top-level churns and the company has been announcing new appointments and management changes. Just a month ago, Freshworks' chief revenue officer Pradeep Rathinam resigned from the firm he had joined in 2020.

The firm recently appointed former Adobe and F5 executive Mika Yamamoto as its first chief customer and marketing officer (CCMO). Freshworks also appointed Johanna Jackman as the new Chief People Officer (CPO).

The firm’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Shan Krishnaswamy left the company in September 2022 amid a management rejig, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) major said on March 8.

In September of 2022, Freshworks appointed Dennis Woodside as president. He was responsible for leading Freshworks’ global business operations and strategy.

Speaking about the management changes, Girish Mathrubootham, the CEO of Freshworks in an earlier interaction said that the company is maturing, and 'as the team leader, he needs to field the best one to win'.

When asked about Indian executives leaving the firm, Mathrubootham said that there is no such practise or discrimination within the firm.

"We don’t think this is what it is. There is no discrimination based on nationality, religion, age, or sex. You always want to have the best person for the job, right? So, even IPL teams have foreigners as captains. We interview candidates, we always go through a search process and we find the best candidate for the job," he added.

Also Read: As team captain, I need to field the best one to win: Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham

Freshworks posted a consolidated revenue from operations rose 20 percent year-on-year to $596.4 million for the full year 2023. In 2022, Freshworks reported consolidated revenue from operations of $498 million for the full year 2022, up around 34 percent year-on-year.