Who Is Shridhar Vembu, Zoho Co-Founder Who Made An Indian Alternative To WhatsApp

As Indians never believed that rural India could come up with innovative tech startups, many moved to Western countries in hopes of better standards of living and opportunity. But what if we tell you that Sridhar Vembu, who is now a known name in the tech industry, particularly because of his startup, Zoho, is a unique entrepreneur? This is not just because his startups are unique, but his approach towards expanding them is unique too.

Sridhar Vembu, a billionaire, is the co-founder of the multinational company Zoho. It helps businesses by providing them with resources like software and business tools. Vembu also co-founded Arattai, a messaging app which is an Indian alternative to WhatsApp.

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Vembu is known to have built Zoho company from scratch in his village in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu. A graduate of Princeton University, Vembu began his career in Silicon Valley, working in the IT industry. Despite his high-paying job, he wasn't satisfied with it. He believed that his true potential could be unlocked not in the elite institutions abroad, but in the small villages and towns of India.

In the early 2000s, Vembu decided to return to India and settle in his village in Tamil Nadu. From there, he started working on a "software as a service" company, which would later become Zoho. He had thought of bootstrapping the company. Unlike many startups which rely on external funding, Zoho was built using personal savings and initial revenues, without seeking any external funding from investors. This helped the Zoho team to focus on long-term growth instead of chasing short-term goals.

Zoho (previously known as AdventNet Inc) rebranded to Zoho Corporation in 2009. Since 2011, Zoho has operated in the rural regions of the Tenkasi district, and Vembu has been working from there since 2020 as his head office.

How Did Vembu Train Local Talent
One of Vembu's most unique initiatives was training the rural youth instead of hiring them formally through engineering colleges. He created unique training programs and schools for youth to learn the skills needed for the workplace, where many young people learned software development skills. Many of them were later hired to work at Zoho. Today, a large chunk of Zoho's workforce continues to operate from non-urban locations.

World-class Offerings
Zoho offers a comprehensive list of business apps that can handle everything from sales and marketing to finance and human resources. The company offers more than 50 cloud-based software products which are used by over 100 million users in more than 180 countries.

Despite operating as a multinational software-as-a-service company that provides its services across the globe, the company remains private and operates independently.

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Exemplary Figure In World Of Tech Startups
While most CEOs around the world choose big office spaces and acres of office campuses, Sridhar Vembu's approach not only saves expansion costs but also helps bridge the strong digital divide that has been created in India due to a lack of access to technology and education. Vembu helped the youth connect with both technology and education through his training programs.

Arattai - Alternative To WhatsApp
Vembu's Zoho is also behind the recent launch of Arattai- which is a new messaging app from India that has reached the top of the App Store's social networking charts. The app is being promoted as "Made in India" alternative to apps like WhatsApp. It has many features similar to WhatsApp, such as chatting, calling, and sharing media, and has recently seen a huge increase in users, causing the company to quickly add more servers to keep up.

Zoho has been noted to come up with interesting and affordable all-in-one business applications, built with a long-term vision, unlike many of its competitors. The company also launched Zoho One in 2017. Its primary purpose was to solve common problems faced by businesses of all sizes, who worked on disconnected different software services for managing their business. Zoho One was the first of its kind to combine an operating system for business that unified 50 applications into a single integrated platform.