Nishant Rao, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Freshdesk, an enterprise customer support provider has decided to vacate his office. Though Rao has cited personal reasons as the cause of departure, but the luring position offered by leading venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital India seems to be the objective behind the same.
Being one of the significant investors for Freshdesk, the VC firm has been associated with Rao for a long time now. The series F round of funding for the platform was led by Sequoia Capital India in participation with existing investor Accel Partners. The capital infusion raised the total funds picked up by the SaaS company to a whopping $150.5 million. Sequoia has welcomed Rao to hold the office as an advisor which was confirmed through a twitter post. Rao tweeted,
Continue to be bullish about India scale-ups & working w/ @Sequoia_India to advice the portfolio in India & Asia similarly get scale ready!
— Nishant Rao (@nishrao) March 24, 2017
Rao has already been handling an advisory post for the National Committee on Skill Development, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and also serves as the chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). He joined Freshdesk back in October 2015 and was responsible for all non-R&D aspects of the company’s operations. Prior to Freshdesk, he was associated with Linkedin and was appointed as MD for India operations.
Working from the Freshdesk HQs itself, Nishant played a crucial role in setting up strong foundational building blocks for their global expansion. His leadership played a pivotal role in the company’s journey from 400 to nearly over a 1,000 employees serving over 100k customers globally.
Calling the departure as a huge loss for Freshdesk, CEO Girish Mathrubootham shared his opinion and said,
While I am sad that this is a big loss for me and Freshdesk, I am glad he is making the right choice for his future and his family.
The new job opportunity would place Nishant at company’s Gurgaon quarters, which means he could be closer to his family in Delhi. It would hence create a perfect balance between the latter’s personal and professional life.
