companies

Zoho

Bootstrapped software conglomerate behind 55+ business apps, with its Zia AI assistant and agent marketplace threaded across the whole suite.

Zoho Corporation was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and has never taken outside venture funding, a point the company treats as core to its identity in an industry dominated by VC-backed competitors. It grew from a network management tool into a sprawling suite of more than 55 applications spanning CRM, email, finance, HR, and productivity, most of which are built on Zoho's own infrastructure rather than assembled through acquisition, which is unusual for a company of its size. Zia, first introduced in Zoho CRM years ago, has grown into the company's umbrella AI brand across the whole product line. In 2025 Zoho launched its own Zia LLM alongside Zia Agent Studio and an Agent Store offering more than 100 prebuilt agents that can act across roughly 60 Zoho apps, letting customers mix Zoho-hosted models with external ones like OpenAI or Anthropic depending on cost and capability needs. The company is privately held and profitable, with dual headquarters in Chennai, India, and Austin, Texas, and more than 18,000 employees. Sridhar Vembu stepped back from the CEO role in January 2025 to focus on research as Chief Scientist, with co-founder Shailesh Kumar Davey taking over as CEO.

Founded

1996

Headquarters

India

Sector

applications