Zoho
Privately held Indian software company founded in 1996 as AdventNet. It sells business applications such as CRM and Zoho One, the Catalyst developer platform and ManageEngine IT tools, and reports more than 150 million users.
Industry: Business software and cloud applications | Location: Chennai, India | Founded: 1996
About Zoho
Zoho is an Indian software company that sells cloud business applications, development platforms and IT management tools. Its website says it has more than 60 products, more than 150 million users in over 150 countries and more than 19,000 employees. Wikipedia gives its headquarters as Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The company began in 1996 as AdventNet, Inc. in New Jersey, selling network management software, and was renamed Zoho Corporation in 2009. Sridhar Vembu, Tony Thomas and Shailesh Kumar Davey are listed as its founders. Vembu was chief executive until 2025, when Davey took over and Vembu became chief scientist, focused on research and development. Tony Thomas leads Zoho US, Rajesh Ganesan heads ManageEngine and Manikandan Vembu oversees zoho.com. In March 2026 Mani Vembu described himself as chief executive of the Zoho division.
Zoho CRM and Zoho Writer were its first two applications. Zoho One, introduced in 2017, bundles more than 50 applications, and the product range also includes Zoho Mail, Books, Desk, Creator and ManageEngine. For developers it offers Catalyst, a cloud platform for applications and APIs, and Zia Agent Studio for building AI agents. In 2026 it announced AppOS, a platform for building business applications. The company says it owns its technology stack and runs its own data centres.
In the Middle East and Africa, Zoho opened its first Dubai office in 2018 and offices in Doha in 2024. It says it is adding data centres in the United Arab Emirates, and Hyther Nizam is president of Zoho Middle East and Africa. Its compliance page says its Saudi entity holds a Class B certification under the National Cybersecurity Authority cloud controls, issued by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission.
Zoho is privately held and says it has never taken money from investors. According to a Motilal Oswal report of April 2026, revenue for fiscal 2025 was 12,313 crore rupees, up 17.8 percent, and net profit was 3,191 crore rupees, down from 3,299 crore the year before. Its compliance page lists ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 and other certifications.
Leadership
- Sridhar Vembu, Co-founder and Chief Scientist
- Shailesh Kumar Davey, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
- Tony Thomas, Co-founder; head of Zoho US
- Rajesh Ganesan, Head of ManageEngine
- Manikandan Vembu, Chief Executive Officer, Zoho division (oversees zoho.com)
- Hyther Nizam, President, Zoho Middle East and Africa