Zoho Corporation is a company that is one of the underrated legends of India with its current valuation being over US$1 Billion. The company develops a broad set of front- and back-end business software, best known for its online office suite – Zoho Office Suite.
Founded in 1996, by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas, Zoho corp’s global headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, along with 12 other offices and presence in 9 countries worldwide. It is the best known bootstrapped multinational company in India, which hasn’t taken a penny of external investment till date.
Initially the company was named Vembu Software, with Tony taking up Chairman and CEO, and Sridhar handling the marketing and promotion of their products. They provided solutions software for business problems, for effective business management. Slowly, as their sales increased, they expanded their market in the Silicon valley and Japan as well. Their best selling apps before 2010 were – Zoho CRM, Zoho docs, Zoho writer, Zoho show, Zoho meeting, Zoho creator, Zoho projects, Zoho sheets.
After the 2008 IT recession, Sridhar Vembu took over as CEO and chairman, launched a research and development division and changed the company’s name to AdventNet (then later to the current name Zoho corporation in 2009). They also run an informal University named Zoho University, where they train under-privileged but deserving young people as IT professionals and grasp them in their own fold post training.
Currently, they not only sell their software but also provide them on rent. After starting the R&D division, they have developed various other applications in the areas like software, cloud computing and web-based business solutions.
All these strategies, over the years, have given a boost to the company’s popularity leading to the current profits. As per their latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate affairs, their profits have skyrocketed to 43% in FY22, as compared to the previous year. The company said its total profit attributable to the shareholders rose to Rs. 2,748.83 crores in the financial year ended March 2022, from 1917.72 crores the previous year.
The revenue rose to about 29% to Rs. 6,998.82 crores, according to the filings on Saturday. Zoho Corp Pvt Ltd’s consolidated financials include the performance of foreign subsidiaries as well. On a standalone basis, the Indian unit booked a profit of Rs. 2,386 crores on the revenue of Rs 5,309.05 crores. The standalone figures are higher by 21% for profit and about 19% for revenue from the previous year.
Finance costs went up fourfold to Rs 10.22 crores, while depreciation and amortization cost reduced by 27% to Rs 277.29 crores.
According to the CEO Sridhar Vembu, due to the recent prediction of recession by Central banks worldwide, the company will be cutting its spending on marketing and also slowing down its hiring from here on.
Currently, Zoho has its presence in 150 countries and employs over 11,000 people.