Zoho Corporation
Indian multinational technology company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes cloud-based office 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]
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 Zoho headquarters in Chennai, India | |
| Formerly | AdventNet, Inc. (1996–2009) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Chennai, India |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
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| Products |
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| Services | |
| Revenue |  ₹8,703 crore (US$1.11 billion) (FY23)[2] |
| ₹2,836 crore (US$360 million) (FY23)[2] | |
Number of employees | 15,000+ (2023)[3] |
| Divisions | |
| Website | |
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, it is privately owned,[10] 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.[11][12]
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.[4][13]
AdventNet expanded operations into Japan in 2001 and shifted focus to small and medium businesses (SMBs).[13] In 2002, the company started its enterprise IT management software division known as ManageEngine.[14]
Zoho CRM was released in 2005, along with Zoho Writer, the company's first office suite product.[13] Zoho Projects, Creator, Sheet, and Show were released in 2006.[13] 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.[15] In 2009, the company was renamed Zoho Corporation after its online office suite.[4] The company remains privately owned.[16]
In 2014, Zoho had its first annual user conference, called Zoholics, in India.[17][7] In 2017, Zoho launched Zoho One, a platform of over 40 integrated applications.[18] In 2020, it launched Zoho Workplace, a suite combining its existing productivity, collaboration and communication software.[19]
In 2023, ERP software company Gofrugal, founded by Sridhar Vembu's brother Kumar Vembu, merged with Zoho.[20] In 2025, Zoho announced the launch of its large language model, Zia, for enterprise AI applications.[21]
In October 2025, all 1.2 million email accounts of the Indian central government employees were migrated to Zoho Mail.[22] The Hindu quoted a senior official as saying, "Zoho's suite has been activated to ensure that government employees do not use open source applications."[23]
Security issues
Zoho has been criticised for multiple security issues.[24][25] In 2021, hackers exploited vulnerabilities in a password management and single sign-on system provided by Zoho's ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus.[26] In January 2022, the exploit was used to target the Red Cross, compromising data of 515,000 people, with the Red Cross admitting that it did not apply a security patch released by Zoho in September 2021.[27]
In 2025, an SQL injection vulnerability allowed attackers to run unauthenticated SQL queries, potentially giving access to sensitive information in databases hosted by Zoho.[28] The same year, Zoho's messaging app, Arattai was criticised for lacking end-to-end encryption for chats.[29]
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 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.[17][30]
ManageEngine has both on-premises and cloud-based software products in categories such as enterprise IT management, cybersecurity and unified endpoint management.[31][32]
Messaging app
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.[33]
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,[34] which briefly pushed it to the top of the Apple App Store in India in the Social Networking category.[35] 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.[36][37][38]
Browser
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.[39]
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.[40][41]
Payment app
In 2025, Zoho launched 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.[42][43][44]
Locations
Zoho is headquartered in Chennai, India. As of 2021, it has 12 offices operating in nine countries,[45][46] including China, Singapore, and Japan. The bulk of its operations is carried out from its office in Chennai.[7][47]
Its US headquarters was in Pleasanton, California[18] until it was moved to Del Valle, Texas in 2019.[48] 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.[49][50] Since 2018, Zoho also operates from an office in Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh.[51]
In February 2022, Zoho opened an office in New Braunfels, Texas, United States.[52] In April 2022, Zoho opened an office in McAllen, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, the company's third location in Texas.[53][54]
In 2023, Zoho opened Zoho Labs R&D divisions in Nagpur, India, for developing data center hardware.[55][56] As of 2025, Zoho operates data centers in 18 global locations, including Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai in India.[9]