Sridhar Vembu

Sridhar Vembu is the co-founder and chief executive of Zoho Corporation, a Chennai-based software company with the brands Zoho, ManageEngine and WebNMS. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of trade and industry, from Tamil Nadu ^[1].

IIT and Princeton

Vembu was born on 28 June 1968 in Umayalapuram, Tamil Nadu, and went to school in Chennai ^[2]. He graduated from IIT Madras and went on to Princeton University ^[2]. In 1996 he founded the company, then called AdventNet, with his brothers and friends, to build software products in India ^[2]. It was one of the first Indian product companies, and among the first anywhere to sell software as a service in the early 2000s ^[2].

Private and debt-free

Vembu has kept the company private, profitable and free of outside investors, so that it can invest in its staff and customers rather than shareholders; it has never taken a loan ^[2]. Zoho builds its own products, such as email and spreadsheets, rather than buying them, and runs its own data centres ^[2].

Learning on the job

In 2005 he started the Zoho Schools of Learning, which take students from government schools after Class 12 and diploma holders into an 18-month paid course, then hire those who finish ^[2]. About 10% of Zoho’s workforce comes from these schools ^[2]. More than 50 former employees have started companies of their own ^[2].

Rural offices

In 2010 Zoho opened its first rural office in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, to bring jobs to the area, and in 2018 Vembu moved there himself from the United States to focus on rural development ^[2].