Zoho Corp revenue hit $1 billion in 2021, India business grew 77%

At current growth rate, India could be company's biggest market in 10 yrs: CEO

Chennai-based technology company Zoho Corporation on Tuesday said that it has crossed $1 billion in revenue in 2021 with its India business growing by 77 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Buoyed by this, the tech firm is planning to open 100 points of presence (PoPs) around the world in five years to provide users a faster network.

The company, which has a workforce of 11,000, has slowed down hiring amid fears of an economic downturn.

“We have crossed $1 billion in revenue during 2021. Our fastest-growing market is India and close to it is the Middle East. Across the board, the growth rate has come down. The US is number 1, European Union number 2 and India is approaching number 3 for us. India can be number 2 in the next 4-5 years and number 1 in 10 years based on the growth rate at which it is growing,” said Sridhar Vembu, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder, Zoho Corp.

“After all, we cannot compile new energy. Unfortunately, recent developments in our industry, amid the rapidly-deteriorating global economic outlook, are a rude reminder of our own limits as technologists," Vembu added.

Zoho offers web-based business tools, including operating system software for businesses, software for customer relationship management, human resource management, enterprise collaboration platform, and GST-compliant accounting software.

Vembu said, “While growth has slowed down quite a bit in 2022, our diversified product portfolio and the fact that we save money for customers have helped us. We hope to continue to serve our customers by bringing the highest quality offerings at very affordable prices.”

The company has businesses in over 150 countries and built a user base of over 80 million in the last 25 years.

"Fundamentals matter now more than ever, and our industry has to learn to lower the friction of technology so that technology becomes far more affordable," Vembu added.

The company also plans to double investments for technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI).

Vembu said: "We will add 100 more network PoPs around the world in the next five years to enhance network access. We are also working on adding Indian language support for our AI and blockchain technology for universal validation. Our focus will be on technologies that businesses — regardless of their size and location — will be able to use securely."

He added that the company's growth is driven by research and development and a lot of firms are shifting to Zoho applications. This is driving growth for the company. Zoho has received 25 patents in the last three years.