Freshworks, Eka Software Founders Launch Together, A $85 Million VC Fund For SaaS Startups

• ByAyushi Ray     |    July 28, 2021

Freshworks, Eka Software founders launch Together,  a $85 million VC fund for SaaS startups. reshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham and Eka Software founder Manav Garg come together for this venture. The move brings together Mathrubootham- India’s most successful software startup founder in recent times- and other industry bulwarks to back software startups at a time when the market is booming, valuations are soaring, and investors are seeing huge payoffs on something they weren’t convinced about even 5-10 years ago. Together’s founders however insist that it is not just a regular venture fund backing software-as-a-service entrepreneurs and looking for financial returns. “To me, Together is not just a fund, it is a way to pay it forward to the startup community that gave me so much. With Together, we are not just offering capital to founders, we are offering our time and counsel as well. We have brought together a large network of more than 150 founders and operators across India and Silicon Valley to provide contextual help and guidance,” Freshworks CEO Mathrubootham said. 

“In today’s world, capital is a commodity. We don’t want to be an investor – we want to be like a co-founder. While we do want to deliver financial returns on our investments, that is secondary to our imperative to ensure that we do right by the founder at all times” Garg said. He also said that both founders being active entrepreneurs themselves gives them perspective and an advantage that other software investors don’t have.Mathrubootham is also a prolific angel investor, with more than 60 investments in startups including software firm Whatfix and edtech startup Unacademy. Going forward, however, he and the other partners won’t be doing angel investments. Their fund will be separate and their historical investments will not be part of it. Together has also roped in Shubham Gupta, who used to lead SaaS investments for venture capital firm Matrix Partners, as a founding partner. 

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