Sridhar Vembu's Zoho Sets SaaS Record: 100 Mn Users Without External Funding

Zoho, led by CEO Sridhar Vembu, on Tuesday said it achieved a milestone by reaching over 100 million users across its suite of over 55 business applications. What makes this achievement even more exceptional is that Zoho is the first bootstrapped Software as a Service (SaaS) company to attain such a substantial user base without external funding.

The Chennai-headquartered company’s journey has been characterised by responsible and sustainable expansion, with a particular focus on India, where it has experienced remarkable success. Over the past 15 years, the company has transitioned from serving one million users in 2008 to an impressive 100 million users today. Notably, the last 50 million users were added within just the last five years, underscoring the company's exponential growth.

India Focus

India, in particular, has emerged as a crucial market for Zoho. The company has witnessed an Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 65 per cent in the upmarket segment in India over a three-year period. This underscores the increasing adoption of Zoho's powerful and flexible business tools by Indian businesses, both large and small.

Sridhar Vembu, the visionary co-founder and CEO at Zoho Corp, expressed his gratitude to customers and the remarkable achievement. “I want to thank all of our customers for trusting us with their business and helping us reach 100 million users worldwide. This is an impressive milestone for any organisation, but it's particularly sweet for us as a bootstrapped company that has never raised external capital. And we are not done yet,” he said. 

“We have an impressive innovation pipeline covering the next 10 years and are investing in deep technologies to serve billions of users around the world. We're working towards it, and we want to thank all of you for your continued support,” Vembu added.

One of the key factors contributing to Zoho's success is its commitment to sustainable growth. By choosing not to seek external funding, Zoho has interestingly retained control over its long-term vision and corporate culture, avoiding external pressures and influences. In an interview with BW Businessworld, Vembu had revealed that this strategy has allowed the company to stay true to its values, including its focus on debt-free growth and the “transnational localism” approach, which aims to serve customers wherever they are located across the globe.