Girish Mathrubootham, the founder of Freshworks, builds Rs 100-crore football academy
Following an idea that came to him in 2016, Founder and CEO of software development business Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham has spent roughly Rs 100 crore in FC Madras, a football academy he founded in 2018. The funds committed through the FC Madras Charitable Trust also include contributions of less than Rs 1 crore from some of Mathrubootham’s acquaintances. These contributions were used to construct a football facility in Mahabalipuram, around 60 kilometres from Chennai. “We have also established five OKRs (objectives and key outcomes) for this academy.” “Mathrubootham said. “We are focused on developing player capacity and providing worldwide exposure for the youngsters, as well as establishing a comprehensive programme, supporting it with technology, determining how to integrate sustainability into the operations, and investing in a safe and secure environment.”
Freshworks was co-founded by Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy, who recently left the firm. He is also a founding member of SaaSBOOMi, India’s first community for software-as-a-service (SaaS) creators, and will launch his fourth-largest endeavour, Together Fund, in 2021. The facility’s annual operating costs are estimated to be roughly $1.5 million. Apart from soliciting donations for the trust, the team would also run summer camps and weekend programmes, as well as allow corporations to hold board meetings and team trips at the property to generate additional cash.
The institution, which spans 23 acres, is a residential campus that trains adolescents aged 13 to 15 in football while simultaneously imparting “life skills” and offering academic courses under the National Institute of Open Schooling curriculum. While the existing facility can accommodate 130 athletes, FC Madras has picked 50 children from around the country to be part of its inaugural cohort. They used countrywide scouting teams to find the finest U13 and U15 football players, and the top 100 were invited to Chennai for a seven-day camp. Fifty people were chosen based on their physical and mental qualities.
FC Madras intends to incorporate youths as young as 18 years old in the near future. Mathrubootham stated that the team conducted a significant study on football facilities as well as worldwide standards and regulations in order to develop the facility, curriculum, and overall program. The trust has appointed Abhishek Yadav, former Deputy General Secretary of the All India Football Federation and former captain of the Indian national football team, as CEO of FC Madras; Venkatesh Shanmugam, another former captain of the Indian national football team, as Technical Director of Football; and Dr. CN Narayana as Director of Education and Life Skills. FC Madras has also hired Dhananjai CKM, who is in charge of the analytics and performance vertical of Mumbai Indians, an Indian Premier League team, as Director of Sports and Governance.
