Freshworks appoints veteran Tyler Sloat as CFO

San Mateo, California-based customer engagement software provider Freshworks has appointed Tyler Sloat as its chief financial officer (CFO).  

Sloat, who has about 25 years of experience in the sector, will be in charge of maintaining sustainable growth across customer segments, where he will oversee accounting, finance, legal and information technology (IT) functions, the company said in a statement.   

In his previous role as the CFO at California-based enterprise subscriptions software firm Zuora, Sloat guided the company towards a successful initial public offering (IPO) and led the financial teams in the organisation, it said.

Sloat’s appointment comes at a time when Freshworks, with a headcount of more than 3,000, has doubled revenues in the past 18 months to surpass $200 million in annual sales.

“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,” Sloat said, speaking on the current market scope for Freshworks.

Prior to the 10-year stint at Zuora, Sloat worked in organisations such as hybrid cloud data services provider NetApp, mobile money solutions provider Obopay and customer relationship management solutions provider Siebel Systems in various financial roles.  

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

The expertise that Sloat brings to the company would play a role in the ability of Freshworks to achieve billion dollars in revenue in the coming years, Mathrubootham added.

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Freshworks was also recently in the news after it was accused by its competitor Zoho, for trade secret violations.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court Northern District of California on March 17, which TechCircle has read, Zoho alleged that CTO Shan Krishnasamy and Mathrubootham, both ex-employees of Zoho, engaged in systematic poaching of Zoho employees.