SaaS unicorn based in Chennai, Freshworks, requested the US Court dismiss the lawsuit filed by Zoho Corporation, alleging the former of carrying data theft activities.
As reported by ET (1), Zoho, a rival of the Chennai-based SaaS unicorn, filed a case against Freshworks at the California Northern District Court under the Defense of Trade Secrets Act, accusing the company of accessing and using confidential customer data.
Freshworks, while asking the US court to dismiss the plea filed by Zoho, Freshworks said that the company’s plea lacked “specificity and particularity” in its allegations.
Zoho claimed that its customers were receiving emails from Freshworks in their confidential IDs, and the complaint further mentioned certain actions of a specific Freshworks employee.
The Freshworks & Zoho rivalry
Freshworks, in its response filed on 16th July, accused Zoho of expanding one alleged incident into a broader case of trade secret misappropriation.
Freshworks was founded by two of the former Zoho employees Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, who served as the vice president of product management and technical architect at Zoho from 2001 to 2010, respectively.
The lawsuit read that Mathrubootham, after leaving to start Freshworks, improperly included Zoho’s confidential revenue figures in early Freshworks investor pitch material to secure their initial investments, leveraging his work at Zoho & suggesting his new startup would perform like Zoho.
Freshworks raised $1 million in its Series A funding round in 2011 from Accel, an early and growth-stage venture capital firm. The firm has raised $484 million in nine funding rounds from six investors, with its most recent funding worth $85 million from Steadview Capital.
