Freshworks Acquires AI Startup Robusta To Strengthen IT Operations Platform

Freshworks, a Nasdaq-listed SaaS company, has acquired Israel-based AI startup Robusta Dev for an undisclosed sum in order to enhance its IT service management platform, Freshservice. The acquisition will add AI-powered capabilities to investigate technology outages, pinpoint their root causes, and suggest corrective actions. Freshworks aims to integrate these features into Freshservice and improve their compatibility with incident response platforms like FireHydrant.

Robusta, founded by Natan Yellin and Arik Alon, employs AI agents to analyze monitoring data, information from IT infrastructure, and recent code or configuration alterations to determine the cause of an outage. It also identifies how disruptions impact interconnected services and proposes steps to resolve them. The technology is intended to lessen manual investigations, consolidate alerts, and enable engineering teams to address incidents more swiftly.

Engineers can review and approve recommended actions before implementing changes to production systems. Robusta's founder, Yellin, expressed enthusiasm about joining Freshworks, stating that the company would benefit from the scale and platform to bring this experience to engineering teams globally while maintaining human oversight of production-related decisions.

The integration will connect incident diagnosis, response, and prevention workflows, enabling businesses to leverage insights from prior outages to minimize recurring disruptions. This acquisition expands Freshworks' AI-powered service operations offerings, which concentrate on automating IT workflows and assisting enterprises in managing technology incidents.

Freshworks, founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy, provides cloud-based software for customer engagement, sales, and IT service management. The Robusta acquisition follows Freshworks' recent agreement to buy Torii, a SaaS management platform that helps organizations track software usage and handle AI expenditure.

The company also purchased US-based incident management startup FireHydrant last year, which assists businesses in coordinating responses to software outages, while Robusta brings AI-powered root-cause analysis and remediation recommendations. For the financial year 2026 Q1, Freshworks reported a $4.8 Mn net loss, despite a 16% year-on-year revenue growth to $228.6 Mn.

The company also announced plans to reduce its workforce by around 11%, or approximately 500 employees, as it seeks to incorporate AI into product development and automate routine tasks.