Freshworks vs Glean

By valuation, Glean is the larger company at $4.6B versus $3.2B — a 1.4x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Freshworks employs 7500 people while Glean has 500 employees.

Glean has raised more in total funding at $600M, compared to Freshworks's $400M — a gap of $200M. Combined, the two companies have completed 11 known funding rounds.

Glean holds the higher Awaira Score at 82/100, compared to Freshworks's 76/100. The Awaira Score is a composite metric factoring in valuation, funding, stage, team size, and market presence — a 6-point gap that reflects meaningful differences in scale or traction.

Freshworks was founded by Girish Mathrubootham in 2010. Glean was founded by Arvind Jain in 2019. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Freshworks: Freshworks is a publicly traded enterprise software company founded in 2010 that provides customer engagement and business operations platforms. The company develops cloud-based solutions including Freshdesk (customer support), Freshsales (CRM), Freshservice (IT service management), and Freshchat (conversational AI). These products incorporate AI capabilities for automation, predictive analytics, and intelligent routing to streamline customer service operations and sales workflows. The platform serves mid-market to enterprise customers across various industries including SaaS, technology, healthcare, and financial services. Freshworks went public on NASDAQ in October 2021 with a valuation of $3.2 billion. The company has raised $400 million in total funding across its lifecycle. In the competitive enterprise AI landscape, Freshworks positions itself against established players like Salesforce and Zendesk by offering modular, affordable cloud solutions with embedded AI features. Its approach emphasizes ease of implementation and user accessibility rather than complexity. The company has demonstrated consistent growth through both organic expansion and strategic acquisitions. Its multi-product suite enables cross-selling opportunities and increased customer lifetime value. Freshworks serves over 50,000 customers globally and maintains headquarters in San Francisco with significant development operations in India, reflecting its offshore-first business model for cost efficiency. Freshworks bundles multiple enterprise functions (support, sales, IT service management) with AI capabilities at lower price points than traditional competitors, targeting mid-market customers. Glean: Glean is an enterprise AI search and discovery platform founded in 2019 that helps organizations extract actionable insights from internal data. The company operates in the enterprise AI category, providing AI-powered search capabilities across fragmented corporate information systems including documents, emails, chat messages, and databases. Glean's core technology uses machine learning to understand context and intent, enabling employees to find relevant information and answers across previously disconnected data sources. The platform serves large enterprises seeking to improve productivity and knowledge accessibility. Glean competes in the growing enterprise search and generative AI market alongside companies like Perplexity and traditional search providers adapting to AI. The company has raised $600 million across multiple funding rounds, reaching a valuation of $4.6 billion as of its Series E stage. This funding positions Glean among well-capitalized AI startups addressing enterprise information retrieval challenges. The company targets mid-to-large organizations where data silos and information discovery present operational inefficiencies. Glean's growth trajectory reflects broader enterprise adoption of AI-powered search solutions as organizations increasingly prioritize knowledge worker productivity and unified information access across their technology stacks. Glean specializes in enterprise-specific AI search that unifies fragmented internal data sources rather than external web indexing.

Freshworks was founded first in 2010, giving it 9 years of additional market experience. Glean was founded later in 2019. In AI, even a year or two of head start can translate into significantly more training data, customer relationships, and institutional knowledge.

Freshworks has approximately 7500 employees, while Glean has approximately 500. A larger team often signals higher revenue or venture backing, but in AI, smaller teams are increasingly capable of building at scale.

Yes, Freshworks and Glean are direct competitors — both operate in the Enterprise AI space and likely target overlapping customer segments. This comparison is especially relevant for buyers evaluating both platforms.