Freshworks Aims for Global Expansion and a $1 Billion Valuation Using AWS Global Passport

In an age of remote-first and hybrid working models, it’s never been more important to create powerful experiences. Freshworks’ AI software helps organizations build their workplaces to improve employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Already present in India, North America, and EMEA, Freshworks started defining its aims for ambitious international growth. “We’re a 700 million dollar company. Our aim is to get to 1 billion dollars-plus and become a globally recognized brand,” says Laura Padilla, senior vice president of global channels and emerging market sales at Freshworks.

Exploring new territories is a compelling prospect for software companies, promising increased reach, revenue, and brand recognition. The Asia Pacific software market alone is expected to reach 99.3 billion dollars by 2027 thanks to the region’s increased digitization efforts. But Freshworks needed a strategic, multidimensional partner to help it cut through the challenges of landing and expanding in new territories. “We want to be able to access all markets, but it’s virtually impossible to do it alone,” says Murali Swaminathan, chief technology officer at Freshworks.

The first step in creating Freshworks’ strategic growth plan was to assess the key areas where AWS Global Passport could have the greatest impact. Following a workshop with consultancy Think & Grow, Freshworks identified the United States, the United Kingdom, and EMEA as key growth regions. It also took steps to make sure that it had a business model robust enough for international expansion alongside a strong understanding of target customers.

To effectively address customer and competitive demands in its target markets, Freshworks needed local expertise, and the global resources of AWS were key to unlocking this. “AWS Global Passport provides marketing and branding as well as access to local customers and partners,” says Swaminathan. By reorganizing marketing efforts according to the ground-level knowledge and resources of AWS, Freshworks can tailor its go-to-market approach for increased attention and traction.

Establishing co-selling relationships with AWS sales teams has been invaluable to Freshworks as it has navigated local markets. With its solution on AWS Marketplace, Freshworks has benefited not only from broadened access for its customers but also the chance to offer them cloud consumption credits. “That makes Freshworks a more attractive solution through AWS,” says Padilla. Using Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO), which companies can use to purchase directly from a Channel Partner of their choice in AWS Marketplace, Freshworks can authorize custom pricing and terms through regional partners while benefiting from their localized support and expertise. “We’re gaining contracts from this partnership that we wouldn’t have otherwise,” says Padilla.

With AWS, Freshworks also gains access to a global, scalable infrastructure. “As we look at data centers and local regulatory requirements, AWS can get us up and running much faster in new markets,” says Padilla. Freshworks’ collaboration with AWS has already proven fruitful in that area, with the opening of new AWS data centers in Dubai and London, helping Freshworks reach customers in the Middle East, Africa, and the United Kingdom. Ultimately the collaboration with AWS has demonstrated to Freshworks the value of strategic partnerships that can deliver local expertise and resources at a global scale. “AWS is much more than just an infrastructure provider—they’ve really embraced our co-marketing and co-selling partnerships,” says Padilla.

Moving forward, Freshworks is continuing to lean on its partnership with AWS. “We’re really excited about how we can deepen our multifaceted collaboration,” says Padilla. To that end, Freshworks is already using a range of other AWS resources, such as the AWS Rapid Ramp Credit Program, which provides a 300 dollar credit to small businesses to quickly get started testing AWS against their specific IT requirements. “With AWS Rapid Ramp Credits, we can access services and technologies we’ve never used before and thus build new revenue streams,” says Swaminathan. Moreover, the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program (WMP), which helps Software Partners accelerate workload migrations to software as a service, is empowering Freshworks to scale and reach customers that it previously couldn’t.

As an AI-powered software company, Freshworks quickly found a use case for Amazon Bedrock, the simplest way to build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models. “We can now use models hosted on Amazon Bedrock to build employee-friendly experiences,” says Swaminathan. Looking ahead, Freshworks aims to build on its AI offering using AWS infrastructure and technology, benefiting from the faster deployment that helps it realize customer growth alongside its own. As it scales, Freshworks is also keeping an eye on margins, for example by taking savings from AWS Rapid Ramp Credits and reinvesting them toward product growth. “We’re constantly applying AWS expertise to optimize and reduce costs,” says Swaminathan.