Freshworks' M&A history: the company's $230M acquisition of IT asset management firm Device42, with deal terms, strategic rationale, and post-close commentary sourced from SEC filings.
Deal Timeline
Plotted by close date where disclosed, otherwise announcement. Select any marker to jump to the deal entry.
Three patterns run through Freshworks's acquisitions — what it looks for, how it pays, and how it folds in what it buys.
01
Acquisition criteria
Buy capability, not scale.
Freshworks' four acquisitions are each small, targeted capability buys rather than scale plays - Zarget (2017) added conversion-rate-optimization tooling, Natero (2019) brought machine-learning customer-success software, Device42 ($230M, 2024) added IT asset discovery and dependency mapping, and FireHydrant ($88.7M, 2026) added AI-powered incident management. Each plugs a specific product gap rather than buying revenue or market share.
Deepen the IT service and operations suite to move upmarket.
The two largest deals both strengthen Freshworks' IT franchise as it chases larger accounts: Device42's asset management plugs directly into Freshservice, framed explicitly around competing "more and more with ServiceNow," and FireHydrant extends the portfolio into incident management. The bigger checks concentrate on the ITSM/ITOM bundle where Freshworks competes for mid-market and enterprise customers.
Fold acquired products into the platform rather than run them standalone.
Zarget marked Freshworks' entry into marketing software and Natero added customer-success capabilities to its unified customer-engagement platform, while the later IT deals were absorbed into Freshservice. Freshworks openly expected churn in Device42's standalone installed base, underscoring that the value sits in the combined suite and cross-sell into its existing customers, not in the acquired revenue stream.
Device42 is an IT asset management company that provides comprehensive, continuously up-to-date views of assets across an organization's entire IT infrastructure - from mainframe to cloud. Freshworks acquired all outstanding equity of D42 Parent, Inc. through its wholly-owned subsidiary Doppler Merger Sub, Inc. The combination lets Freshworks offer a more comprehensive IT solution, pairing Device42's asset discovery and application dependency mapping with Freshworks' Freshservice ITSM platform. $230 million aggregate purchase price (announced; $215M cash + $15M equity rollover, plus up to $20M in retention RSUs). Total purchase consideration recorded at $238.1 million per the FY2024 10-K business combination note.
Why it was attractive
Device42's asset discovery and application dependency mapping fill a capability gap in Freshworks' Freshservice ITSM suite
supporting Freshworks' move upmarket into mid-market and enterprise accounts where it competes with ServiceNow
This move reinforces our position in the ITSM market and shows our commitment to delivering value to IT teams worldwide.Dennis Woodside — Chief Executive Officer, Freshworks Inc.
This acquisition represents a significant step forward in delivering more comprehensive IT solutions that empowers organizations to optimize IT operations.Raj Jalan — Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Device42
Post-close · earnings-call commentary
Freshworks CEO, earnings call: "We did do the Device42 acquisition. Didn't have a huge revenue installed base, and we actually were pretty open that we expect that installed base to have disruption to it because it was mainly through a partner competitor, and so we expect a lot of that to go away. The thesis of that buy was on cross-selling into our existing Freshservice installed base, but also higher win rates, specifically as we're moving up enterprise and we're competing more and more with ServiceNow, and so that one is playing out."
02FireHydrant, Inc.$88.7M
Closed Jan 2026•Cash
Incident management software company providing AI-powered incident management, acquired to expand Freshworks' IT service and operations portfolio. $88.7 million in cash (including $4.3 million of cash acquired).
03Natero, Inc. · United StatesNot disclosed
Announced May 2019•Closed May 2019•Acquisition
Natero is a customer-success management software company whose SaaS platform applies machine learning to help businesses reduce churn and grow customer accounts. Freshworks acquired Natero to add customer-success capabilities to its unified customer-engagement platform.
04Zarget · IndiaNot disclosed
Announced Aug 2017•Closed Aug 2017•Acquisition
Zarget is a marketing-software startup offering a suite of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) tools, including A/B testing, heatmaps and funnel analysis, that help marketers understand and improve how users interact with their websites. The deal marked Freshworks' entry into marketing software.