Chennai: Chennai-based Saas-based customer support startup, Freshdesk Technologies has raised $ 1 million in funding from Accel Partners. Apart from the investment, Dr. Shekhar Kirani, Partner, Accel Partners is joining the Board of Directors at Freshdesk.

Freshdesk plans to invest the funds in product development, infrastructure and marketing. Dr. Shekhar Kirani, Partner at Accel Partners, says "We were impressed by what Girish and the Freshdesk team have achieved in a relatively short span of time, a solid team, a product that customers love, significant traction and a big global market opportunity - all the ingredients for success are in place. SaaS is one of our key focus areas and Freshdesk is our first investment from the recently closed $155 million fund for India.”

Co-Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, Freshdesk was launched in June 2011; born as a comment on a Hacker News post, about how a leading customer support software company hiked prices up to 300 percent and made their customers unhappy. Girish was the Vice President of Product Management at ZOHO. He has over 13 years of experience in making and marketing enterprise IT management products. Girish did his MBA in Marketing from University of Madras, and holds a BE in Electrical & Electronics from Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy.

Accel Partners, a global venture capital firm, makes multi-stage investments in internet technology companies, using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies. Accel has over $6 billion under management and has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful category-defining companies.