Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar has announced he will be stepping down from his role leading the Australian tech darling that he co-founded with Mike Cannon-Brookes straight out of university more than two decades ago.

In a message to Atlassian employees late last week, Farquhar said he was resigning as joint CEO of the company to “spend more time with his young family, improve the world via philanthropy, and help further the technology industry globally”.

Farquhar will be standing down at the end of August, and will remain as a board member and special advisor at the company.

Cannon-Brookes, who co-founded Atlassian with Farquhar 23 years ago, will become the company’s sole CEO.

“While there is never a perfect time to make this change, I take comfort in my decision knowing Atlassian is so well placed for the future,” Farquhar said in the message to staff.

“We have a world-class cloud platform and the best team we’ve ever had.

“There are very few companies in the world that can play (and win) in the huge markets we do, with the incredible opportunities at our feet.

“The future has never looked brighter.”

Cannon-Brookes posted a message to his co-founder on X following the announcement.

“Mate. Thank you. It’s been one hell of a ride,” he posted on X.

“Couldn’t be prouder.”

‘Kickstarting the Aussie tech sector’

The resignation brings to an end a long-running co-CEO structure at one of Australia’s biggest and most successful tech startups, and marks a significant turning point for the company.

Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes co-founded Atlassian in the early 2000s straight out of university.

The company creates collaborative workplace communications software, including the tools Jira and Confluence.

Atlassian is now publicly listed on the NASDAQ and has a market cap of just under $70 billion ($US45.93 billion).

“We got to work on the heels of the dot com bust and unbeknownst to us, we were kickstarting the Australian tech industry,” Farquhar said.

“We started what is now known as ‘Product Led Growth’ by selling business software online with no salespeople, and 23 years later, we continue to innovate by leading the world as the largest company committed to remote work with Team Anywhere.”

Farquhar will now be focusing on the Skip Foundation, which he co-founded with his wife Kim Jackson.

The philanthropic organisation is making “big bets” in four areas: equality of opportunity, pledge 1 per cent, environment and health.

He will also be devoting more time to its private investment fund arm, Skip Capital, and mentoring other tech CEOs.

Still growing

Atlassian also last week unveiled its Q3 earnings and revenue results, reporting a growth in third-quarter revenues of 30 per cent to $1.8 billion ($US1.19 billion), driven by significant growth in cloud and data centres.

It was also revealed that Cannon-Brookes offloaded a significant number of his shares in the company last week, selling a total of $2.3 million ($US1.5 million) in Atlassian shares, according to Investing.com.

He still maintains a substantial number of shares in the company he co-founded.

Atlassian was recently listed as among the best companies in Australia to work at to grow your career, thanks in part to its embrace of remote working following the pandemic.

Late last year the company bought seven-year-old US video messaging startup Loom for $1.5 billion.

And early last year Atlassian cut 500 jobs, equating to 5 per cent of its workforce, as part of a “rebalancing of resources”.

This came just five months after the company launched a recruitment drive aiming to employ 1,000 more people.