Girish Mathrubootham, the founder of Freshworks and a poster boy of the Indian SaaS (software as a service) ecosystem, has always been known for his love for cinema. From giving his historic initial public offering (IPO) in the United States the code name ‘Project SuperStar’, honouring Rajinikanth, to calling the megastar his ‘maanaseega’ guru (mentor), this love was never hidden either.
Now, Mathrubootham is adding a new dimension to this passion, and his business, by getting into film production in Tamil. He is geared up to produce filmmaker Pa. Ranjith’s Sarpatta Parambarai 2 (Second Round), the sequel to the 2021 boxing drama. A source close to him confirmed the development. Freshworks was widely known for providing its employees with free exclusive movie screenings and corporate ticket distributions for Rajinikanth movies.
Though the first part of the movie, Sarpatta Parambarai, was scheduled for a theatrical release, it was released directly on Amazon Prime Video in July 2021 due to the pandemic. It was widely acclaimed for its production quality and boxing scenes, winning two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards: Best Actor (Arya) and Best Actor (Special Prize) for Pasupathy.
Mathrubootham’s movie innings comes months after he stepped down as executive chairman of the global SaaS company on December 1. At that time, his plan was to devote his full-time efforts to Together Fund, the venture fund he co-founded. Freshworks was India’s first SaaS firm to go public in the US in 2021.
Mathrubootham was at the helm of Freshworks since its inception in 2010 and spearheaded the company’s initial public offering in 2021. He was succeeded by Roxanne S. Austin as chairperson of the board.
Together Fund was founded in 2021 by leading industry players like Mathrubootham, Manav Garg, founder of Eka Software, and Shubham Gupta, who used to lead SaaS deals at venture capital firm Matrix Partners India. Now, it has over $200 million worth of assets under management. It is pitched as India’s first operator-led, AI-first venture capital fund in the US-India corridor.
“In terms of personal investments, I have exited many of the angel investments I have done in the past. Ever since starting Together Fund, I have stopped all my angel investments. I have a family office, which is managing my personal investments, and I am very passive in that,” Mathrubootham told Business Standard late last year.
“We are an AI-related fund investing in global product companies from India. We are India’s first and only operator-led fund. We don’t come from a venture capital background but from operating our companies. We are bringing that experience to help early-stage founders navigate building global products from India,” he said about the Together Fund.
During the second quarter of the 2026 calendar year that ended in June, Freshworks posted a 16 per cent rise in total revenue to $237.4 million, versus $204.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. The number of customers contributing more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) was 1,746, up 25 per cent year-on-year.
