FreshWorks Studio acquired by advisory services giant EY

The story of Freshworks began in 2013 when Indian immigrants Samarth Mod and Rohit Boolchandani (pictured left to right) moved to Canada in pursuit of an MBA. They landed in B.C.’s capital city at the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, and completed their degrees between 2014 and 2015.

Since its founding, FreshWorks, which specializes in custom software development, has gone on to complete more than 100 projects and expand to more than 100 employees. (Fun fact: The team speaks 30+ languages.) The company has outgrown three offices and repeatedly won recognition for its work.

In 2018, the team was named the Best Immigrant Entrepreneurs at the Small Business Awards. Last year, their success reached another high point when they won the Company of the Year – Growth Success award at the Technology Impact Awards. Of the recognition, Mod said, "it’s truly amazing to see where hard work can take you."

Today, the company enters another new chapter in its history: it’s been acquired and is now part of advisory services giant EY. Specifically, FreshWorks has joined EY Design Studio to bulk up its digital strategy, design, and development capabilities.

"High experience expectations, new emerging technologies, and differentiated business models are pushing organizations to evolve through digital transformation programs," said David McQueen, consulting managing partner at EY Canada, in a statement "By coming together with FreshWorks Studio, we'll provide our clients with the cutting-edge tools, backed by the human-centred methodologies that they need to accelerate transformation and meet evolving demands to digitalize."

FreshWorks fielded multiple offers before signing the deal, according to Mod. But EY shared his team’s vision of creating a top digital studio in Canada. “For a monumental decision like this to make sense to us as founders, we wanted it to be with an entity where we know if we share this news with you, our team, our supporters, our clients, and our community, we would be able to look into their eyes and sincerely say that this is a great decision,” explained Mod in a LinkedIn post.

As part of the acquisition, FreshWorks principals Mod, chief operating officer Boolchandani, and chief strategy officer Shaun Jamieson are joining EY Design Studio as partners.

FreshWorks Studio has built up a well-known brand in the market with startups, Fortune 500s, healthcare, and government.

Recent work includes supporting Western Canada's response to COVID-19, the design and build of apps like B.C.'s vaccine card verifier, and Espri by TELUS Health, in addition to leading the Capital Assets Planning System modernization for the B.C. Ministry of Education.