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Zoho Corporation

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"ZOHO" redirects here. For its office suite, see Zoho Office Suite. For other uses, see Zoho.

Zoho Corporation
FormerlyAdventNet, Inc. (1996–2009)
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded1996; 29 years ago (1996)
Founders
HeadquartersChennai, India
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Services
RevenueIncrease ₹8,703 crore (US$1.11 billion) (FY23)[2]
Increase ₹2,836 crore (US$360 million) (FY23)[2]
Number of employees
15,000+ (2023)[3]
Divisions
  • ManageEngine
  • Zoho.com[4]
  • Qntrl
  • TrainerCentral
  • Gofrugal
  • Zakya[5]
Website

Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes cloud-based business software.[6] Its core products include workplace productivity and collaboration software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and business management tools.[7] The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas as AdventNet, Inc., in New Jersey.[8]

Zoho is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and has offices in 80 countries, with its US headquarters located in Austin, Texas.[9] As of 2023, Sridhar Vembu's sister Radha Vembu and brother Sekar Vembu own 47.8% and 35.2% of the company, respectively, while co-founders Tony Thomas and Sridhar Vembu hold 8% and 5% stakes.[10][11]

History

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From 1996 to 2009, the company was known as AdventNet, Inc., founded in New Jersey, US, and initially provided a network management software called WebNMS.[4][12]

AdventNet expanded operations into Japan in 2001 and shifted focus to small and medium businesses (SMBs).[12] In 2002, the company started its enterprise IT management software division known as ManageEngine.[13]

Zoho CRM was released in 2005, along with Zoho Writer, the company's first office suite product.[12] Zoho Projects, Creator, Sheet, and Show were released in 2006.[12] It expanded into the collaboration space with the release of Zoho Docs and Zoho Meeting in 2007. In 2008, the company added invoicing and mail applications, reaching one million users by August of that year.[14]

In 2009, the company was renamed Zoho Corporation after its online office suite.[4] The company remains privately owned.[15]

In 2014, Zoho had its first annual user conference, called Zoholics, in India.[16][7]

In 2017, Zoho launched Zoho One, a platform of over 40 integrated applications.[17] In 2020, it launched Zoho Workplace, a suite combining its existing productivity, collaboration and communication software.[18]

In 2023, ERP software company Gofrugal, founded by Sridhar Vembu's brother Kumar Vembu, merged with Zoho.[19] Later that year, Zoho claimed it had more than 100 million users.[3]

In 2025, Zoho announced the launch of its large language model, Zia, for enterprise AI applications.[20]

Products

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Zoho has over 45 integrated applications, mainly designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), but scalable for larger enterprises. These products span many categories, including customer relationship management, marketing, sales, customer support, finance, human resources, collaboration, productivity, operations, IT management, and analytics. Notable products include online office suite offering Zoho Office Suite, customer relationship management software Zoho CRM, accounting software Zoho Books, HR management platform Zoho People, and project management software Zoho Projects.[16][21]

ManageEngine has both on-premises and cloud-based software products in categories such as enterprise IT management, cybersecurity and unified endpoint management.[22][23]

Messaging app

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Arattai is an instant messaging application developed by Zoho. It was launched in January 2021, against the backdrop of growing concerns over changes to WhatsApp's privacy policies.[24]

In September 2025, Arattai experienced a surge in new user sign-ups, reportedly growing from about 3,000 per day to 350,000 per day over a span of three days,[25] which briefly pushed it to the top of the Apple App Store in India in the Social Networking category.[26] The surge in downloads was attributed to Zoho products being promoted by Indian government officials as part of their Make in India push for homegrown alternatives to foreign‐owned apps, amid deteriorating India–US relations.[27][28][29]

Browser

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Ulaa Browser is a web browser developed by Zoho, based on the Chromium open-source project and released in 2023. Unlike most mainstream browsers, Ulaa routes its Domain Name System (DNS) queries through India’s national root server system, rather than using default global DNS providers.[30]

Email

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Zoho Mail is an email service developed by Zoho Corporation in 2008 for individuals and organizations. The email hosting service supports custom domain addresses and is integrated with other Zoho products within the Zoho Workplace suite.[31][32]

As of October 2025, all 1.2 million email accounts of the Indian central government employees were migrated to Zoho Mail.[33]

Payment app

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In 2025, Zoho launched Zoho Pay, a UPI-based application integrated with its messaging platform Arattai and available as a standalone mobile app. It supports peer-to-peer and merchant transactions, including money transfers, bill payments, and QR code based payments in India.[34][35][36]

Locations

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Zoho One train wrap on the CTA's 5000-series railcar in Chicago

Zoho is headquartered in Chennai, India. As of 2021, it has 12 offices operating in nine countries around the world.[37][38] The company operates in China and also has offices in Singapore and Japan. The bulk of its support operations is carried out from its office in Chennai.[7][39] Zoho also has an office in Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh and has been operating from this office since 2018.[40]

Its US headquarters was in Pleasanton, California[17] until it was moved to Del Valle, Texas in 2019.[41] In April 2019, Zoho purchased the land outside of Austin that was intended for their new headquarters. Instead, in February 2020, they built an organic farm to serve as both a food source and a wellness space for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.[37][42] There, employees work out of existing structures.[41] Zoho donated surplus farm produce to the Central Texas Food Bank and other local organizations.[42]

The research and development campus is in Estancia IT Park, Chennai. Zoho opened an office in Tenkasi in 2011, where their product Zoho Desk was built and launched.[43][44]

After the outbreak of COVID-19, Zoho planned to open branches in rural areas in southern Tamil Nadu including Madurai and Theni.[45] In February 2022, Zoho opened an office in New Braunfels, Texas, United States.[46] In July of that year, that location had 30 employees.[47]

In April 2022, Zoho opened an office in McAllen, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, the company's third location in Texas.[48][49] In July 2022, the company announced plans to open an office in Lagos, Nigeria, its third African office.[50][47][51]

In 2023, Zoho opened Zoho Labs R&D divisions in Nagpur, India, for developing data center hardware.[52][53] As of 2025, Zoho operates data centers in 18 global locations, including Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai in India.[9]

See also

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  • Vtiger, an open source project originally released by Zoho

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Sridhar Vembu steps down as CEO of Zoho". The New Indian Express. 28 January 2025. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b Dilpikumar, Bhavya (1 February 2024). "Zoho reports Rs 8,703 crore of revenue in FY23, PAT crosses Rs 2,800 crore". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  3. ^ a b Hariharan, Sindhu (6 September 2023). "Zoho crosses 100million user mark". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Arakali, Harichandan (6 June 2016). "The Bootstrapped Buddhist: How Sridhar Vembu built Zoho". Forbes India. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  5. ^ Sarkar, Gargi (27 February 2024). "Zoho Launches New Business Division Zakya To Offer POS Solutions To Retail Stores". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  6. ^ Sharma, Disha. "How SaaS poster boys Zoho and Freshworks ended up in a drag-out fight over alleged theft of ideas". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  7. ^ a b c D'Monte, Leslie (24 November 2014). "Is Zoho the future of enterprise software?". Livemint. HT Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 August 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  8. ^ Bagchi, Shrabonti (29 July 2021). "Sridhar Vembu's village lab". Mintlounge. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  9. ^ a b "'We don't use AWS or Azure': Sridhar Vembu clears air on Arattai, Zoho's desi tech backbone". Business Today. 30 September 2025. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  10. ^ Kroll, Luisa; A. Dolan, Kerry (13 March 2023). "In High Stakes Divorce Battle, Estranged Wife Of Indian Software Tycoon Claims He Transferred Ownership Without Telling Her". Forbes. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  11. ^ Kashyap, Hemant (15 March 2023). "Sridhar Vembu, Pramila Srinivasan & The Zoho Shareholding Saga". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d Mukherjee, Sharmistha (2 February 2017). "How to build a global company from a small town: The Zoho story". TECHSEEN. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  13. ^ Ghosh, Debangana (31 January 2023). "Zoho Corp's arm ManageEngine eyes $1 billion in revenue in 2-3 years". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  14. ^ "How Sridhar Vembu's Zoho Corporation changed avatars since its inception in 1996 as AdventNet". The Economic Times. 11 November 2011. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  15. ^ Kumar, K. Bharat (8 May 2016). "The maverick who shuns investors". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 15 September 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  16. ^ a b "Now a $1 billion firm, Zoho announces new R&D investments". The Indian Express. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  17. ^ a b "About Zoho - Our Story, List of Products". Zoho Corporation. Archived from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Zoho takes on Microsoft, Google with unified Workplace platform". ETCIO.com. The Economic Times. 12 September 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  19. ^ "Gofrugal + Zoho Merger Announcement". Gofrugal. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  20. ^ Bhati, Divya (17 July 2025). "Zoho launches Zia LLM, says it will help Indian companies join AI race". India Today. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  21. ^ Mukherjee, Ayush (23 September 2025). "Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw picks Zoho over Google and Microsoft, here's why". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  22. ^ Mishra, Ashutosh (11 September 2024). "Inside ManageEngine's AI-powered growth strategy towards $1 bn in revenue". Business Standard. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  23. ^ Goled, Shraddha (29 February 2024). "Zoho's ManageEngine may become $1 bn firm ahead of target, says senior exec". Techcircle. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  24. ^ "Homegrown tech firm Zoho develops messaging app Arattai". The Times of India. 10 January 2021. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  25. ^ "All about the new made in India Arattai app and why many people are ditching WhatsApp to join it". The Times of India. 3 October 2025. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  26. ^ Bhati, Divya (30 September 2025). "Arattai vs WhatsApp: Key differences you should know". India Today. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  27. ^ Kumar, Rakesh (2 October 2025). "Zoho-led messaging app Arattai becomes the talks of the town". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  28. ^ Mittal, Apoorva (5 October 2025). "Will Arattai be India's answer to WhatsApp?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  29. ^ "Arattai: The Indian messaging app that wants to take on WhatsApp". www.bbc.com. 8 October 2025. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  30. ^ Venugopal, Sahana (5 May 2025). "Zoho Ulaa Review | A no-frills privacy browser for Google Chrome users". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  31. ^ Gusain, Unnati (9 October 2025). "Amit Shah switches to Zoho Mail, Sridhar Vembu says 20-year faith of Indian engineers vindicated". India Today. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  32. ^ "Amit Shah switches to Zoho Mail". The Hindu. 8 October 2025. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  33. ^ Singh, Vijaita; Deep, Aroon (12 October 2025). "Email accounts of 12 lakh Central government employees now run on Zoho's platform". The Hindu. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  34. ^ Tech, India Today (23 October 2025). "Zoho UPI app launch: What you need to know about Zoho Pay". India Today. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  35. ^ "After Arattai, Zoho Pay UPI app to compete with PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay: Here's what you need to know". FE Tech Bytes. 22 October 2025. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  36. ^ "Indian man who's challenging WhatsApp, now takes up new UPI project to fight Paytm, PhonePe…". Hindustan Times. 24 October 2025. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  37. ^ a b Hartmans, Avery. "Employees at global software firm Zoho have turned the company's Austin headquarters into a fully functioning farm. It's become a respite during the pandemic, and could serve as a model for a new way of working". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  38. ^ "Cloud services firm Zoho to shift U.S. headquarters". The Hindu. 15 July 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  39. ^ "Zoho Corporation eyes 100 million users of its products in five years". Financial Express. 8 August 2015. Archived from the original on 8 August 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  40. ^ "Zoho Corporation opens office at Renigunta". The Hindu Business Line. 13 January 2018. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  41. ^ a b Egan, John (17 December 2021). "Austin-based tech company plugs into booming suburb with more than 100 jobs". CultureMap Austin. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  42. ^ a b "'Labor of love': Tech company swaps plans for glossy Del Valle campus for verdant working farm". austonia. 27 April 2021. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  43. ^ "How Zoho Aims To Put Tenkasi On The Map With Zoho Desk-A Product Built In The Downtown Of Nowhere". Inc42. 22 November 2016. Archived from the original on 28 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  44. ^ "Zoho plans to set up offices in 100 rural districts to tap into local talent". The Economic Times. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  45. ^ "ZoHo Corporation to set up 10 rural centres in south Tamil Nadu". The Times of India. TNN. 29 October 2020. Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  46. ^ Knight, Steve (February 2022). "Global tech company establishes office in Saengerhalle in New Braunfels". Herald-Zeitung Online. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  47. ^ a b Brooks, Steve (26 July 2022). "Zoho impresses with Transnational Localism growth". Enterprise Times. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  48. ^ Martinez, Patricia (24 April 2022). "McAllen lands Zoho". Rio Grande Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  49. ^ Taylor, Steve (27 December 2021). "Patridge: McAllen EDC will soon be welcoming a microchip manufacturer to the RGV". Rio Grande Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  50. ^ Brooks, Steve (27 June 2022). "Zoho targets Africa with new discounts". Enterprise Times. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  51. ^ "Zoho Introduces New Product for SMEs, Gets Office in Lagos | Business Post Nigeria". 24 June 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  52. ^ Srinivas V, Vijay (12 March 2023). "India's SaaS industry bets on rural talent for further scale-up". livemint. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  53. ^ "PwC India, CWAS launch framework for ESG assessment of Indian cities". Business Standard. 3 December 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.

Further reading

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