CleverTap appoints former Freshworks CRO Sidharth Malik as Global CEO

Founding CEO Sunil Thomas becomes Executive Chairman to lead the company’s strategic initiatives.

CleverTap, the world's leading user engagement and retention cloud, has expanded its core leadership with the appointment of Sidharth Malik as global CEO. The announcement comes as CleverTap accelerates its international growth and builds new capabilities to help digital consumer brands increase their customer retention and foster lifetime value.

Malik is a proven leader with a distinguished track record of building and leading dynamic organizations in competitive markets. Formerly the Chief Revenue Officer at Freshworks, a rapidly growing SaaS provider of customer experience solutions, he was instrumental in scaling its business from a single product to a multi-product platform with a global footprint. Under his direction, Freshworks unlocked new markets and strengthened its position as a disruptor in the CRM space -- all of which culminated in a successful IPO this year, bolstered by a significant stake from Alphabet’s CapitalG investment arm.

Malik’s appointment marks a new chapter in CleverTap’s own success journey. Under the leadership of CleverTap co-founder and founding CEO Sunil Thomas, the company has penetrated new markets and achieved $45 million in annual recurring revenue in less than six years of monetization, with a 235% compounded average growth rate.

“CleverTap has grown phenomenally, and through the more than 10,000 mobile apps leveraging our platform worldwide, we’re empowering mobile brands and businesses to touch the lives of over a billion people every day,” Thomas says. In a blog post on the CleverTap website, Thomas discusses the central importance of Malik’s appointment in the company’s wider strategy to deliver growth and value to employees, customers and investors.

To extend the company’s ambitious strategy and execute on its vision, Thomas will assume the role of Executive Chairman. He will focus on scaling innovation and strategic direction for CleverTap, while Malik will help provide leadership for organization-building and day-to-day business execution.

“Sidharth’s passion, insights and leadership skills, coupled with his experience in helping take a world-class SaaS startup from India to the world, make him the right leader at the right time for CleverTap,” Thomas says. “His appointment significantly strengthens CleverTap’s core foundation and leadership team, preparing the company to scale globally and chart to an IPO.”

According to Vikrant Chowdhary, recently appointed CleverTap’s first-ever Chief Growth Officer, Malik’s proficient management skills, combined with more than 20 years’ experience across all organizational functions, equip him to drive superior business results in a short timeframe.

“It’s so heartening to have Sidharth come on board as CEO to partner with me as we scale the business for faster growth, while Sunil focuses on innovation and strategic initiatives with a founder’s mindset,” says Chowdhary. “We are extremely confident in our ability to execute our growth charter and expand global leadership in our category.”

Uniquely positioning itself as a full-stack Retention Cloud, CleverTap has introduced an entirely new product category and expanded its capabilities. Earlier this month, the company further cemented its leading position with the acquisition of Patch, a technology designed to provide seamless, contextual and secure communications between companies and consumers.