Zoho Corporation

Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes cloud-based business software. Its core products include workplace productivity and collaboration software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and business management tools. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas as AdventNet, Inc., in New Jersey. Zoho is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and has offices in 80 countries, with its US headquarters located in Austin, Texas. As of 2023, it is privately owned, with co-founders Tony Thomas and Sridhar Vembu holding 8% and 5% stakes, and Sridhar Vembu's sister Radha Vembu and brother Sekar Vembu owning 47.8% and 35.2% of the company, respectively. History 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. AdventNet expanded operations into Japan in 2001 and shifted focus to small and medium businesses (SMBs). In 2002, the company started its enterprise IT management software division known as ManageEngine. Zoho CRM was released in 2005, along with Zoho Writer, the company's first office suite product. Zoho Projects, Creator, Sheet, and Show were released in 2006. 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. In 2009, the company was renamed Zoho Corporation after its online office suite. The company remains privately owned. In 2014, Zoho had its first annual user conference, called Zoholics, in India. In 2017, Zoho launched Zoho One, a platform of over 40 integrated applications. In 2020, it launched Zoho Workplace, a suite combining its existing productivity, collaboration, and communication software. In 2023, ERP software company Gofrugal, founded by Sridhar Vembu's brother Kumar Vembu, merged with Zoho. In 2025, Zoho announced the launch of its large language model, Zia, for enterprise AI applications. Following a government tender won by Zoho in September 2023, all 1.2 million email accounts of Indian central government employees were migrated from the NIC-based system to Zoho Mail by 2025, while office productivity tools were shifted to the Zoho Workplace suite. In January 2025, co-founder Shailesh Kumar Davey succeeded Sridhar Vembu as group CEO, while Vembu transitioned to the role of chief scientist to focus on research and development. In January 2026, Zoho launched Zoho ERP, an enterprise resource planning product developed at its Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu office. The same month, the company opened its first data centers in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In 2026 Zoho Unveils Nathu La, a Designed-in-House Server, server motherboard and chassis platform in a Move Towards Technological Sovereignty and Inference Cost Reduction. Digital sovereignty Zoho presents their "home-grown" business as supporting Indian digital sovereignty, both through the government's use of Zoho Mail and Zoho Workplace and through their messaging app Arattai, which is presented as "India's WhatsApp". In April 2026, the company also promoted a new data center in the UK as improving British digital sovereignty. There has been some controversy over whether Zoho genuinely offers digital sovereignty and concerns that it is a private company and it has had multiple security issues. Rather than being "a simple tech upgrade," an opinion writer in The Wire wrote, the switch was "a fundamental policy decision that surrenders a core sovereign function to a commercial entity". The Hindu wrote that a "senior official says Zoho’s suite has been activated to ensure that government employees do not use open-source applications." Products 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 the 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. ManageEngine has both on-premises and cloud-based software products in categories such as enterprise IT management, cybersecurity, and unified endpoint management. Messaging app Arattai is an instant messaging application developed by Zoho and launched in January 2021. It experienced a brief surge in new user sign-ups in 2025 when Zoho products were promoted by Indian government officials as part of their push for homegrown alternatives to foreign‐owned apps. Browser Ulaa Browser is a web browser developed by Zoho, based on the Chromium open-source project and released in 2023. Ulaa routes its Domain Name System (DNS) queries through India's national root server system, rather than using default global DNS providers. Email 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. Payment app Zoho Pay, a UPI-based payments and money transfer application integrated with its messaging platform Arattai and available as a standalone mobile app in India. Zoho pay is currently in testing and expected to release soon. Security issues Zoho has been criticized for multiple security issues. In 2021, hackers exploited vulnerabilities in a password management and single sign-on system provided by Zoho's ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus. In January 2022, the vulnerability was used to target the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and data of 515,000 people was compromised, with the ICRC admitting that it did not apply a security patch released by Zoho in September 2021. In 2025, an SQL injection vulnerability allowed attackers to run unauthenticated SQL queries, potentially giving access to sensitive information in databases hosted by Zoho. The same year, Zoho's messaging app, Arattai, was criticized for lacking end-to-end encryption for chats. In February 2026, a North Korean group released tools that use a backdoor to Zoho WorkDrive to deploy malware. Locations Zoho is headquartered in Chennai, India. As of 2025, it has offices in over 80 countries, including China, Singapore, and Japan. The bulk of its operations is carried out from its office in Chennai. Its US headquarters was in Pleasanton, California until it was moved to Del Valle, Texas, in 2019. The research and development campus is in Estancia IT Park, Chennai. Zoho opened an office in Tenkasi in 2011, where its product Zoho Desk was built. Since 2018, Zoho also operates from an office in Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh. In February 2022, Zoho opened an office in New Braunfels, Texas, United States. In April 2022, Zoho opened an office in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, the company's third location in Texas. In 2023, Zoho opened Zoho Labs R&D divisions in Nagpur, India, for developing data center hardware. As of 2025, Zoho operates data centers in 18 global locations, including Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai in India. References Further reading Stross, Randall (4 April 2009). "Web-Based Competition for Microsoft Word". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2016. "Zoho CRM Upgrade Targets Salesforce". InformationWeek. 30 October 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016. "Zoho scores big with India-made software, but shuns IPO and venture capital". Hindustan Times. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2016. External links Official site