Zoho to increase investment in Rural India by setting up offices in Tamil Nadu and UP

Enterprise tech startup Zoho on Monday announced its intention to set up more hubs in the cities of Tirunelveli and Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu as well as one in Uttar Pradesh.

"We are at a time of increasing economic uncertainty. In addition, powerful AI technology could transform the way we work, presenting both huge challenges and opportunities. We are busy reinventing ourselves, and our history of previous reinventions and our strong culture of R&D remains as relevant as ever during this reinvention," said Sridhar Vembu, Co-founder and CEO, Zoho Corp.

Zoho's hub-and-spoke model

Presently, the SaaS company has five hub offices, including ones in Chennai, Tenkasi, and Renigunta, and around 30 spoke offices presently in India. Chennai is also the headquarters of the company. Hub offices are ones that can accommodate 1,000 or more employees, while the spoke offices are smaller offices of up to 100 employees.

Zoho plans to hire approximately 1,300 employees for its upcoming office in Madurai's Kappalur, the company said.

"We are visiting UP often and in the next two months we will decide on the place. It will mostly be in central or eastern Uttar Pradesh and not in Noida," Vembu said.

Zoho is also expanding its current facility, Kalaivani Kalvi Maiyam, which was established during the pandemic to educate young children from villages in and around Tenkasi, the firm said in a media statement.

Vembu was conferred with a Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award in 2021. An IIT Madras graduate, Vembu moved to the US to pursue higher education at Princeton University. He moved back to India in 2019 to set up his company in Tenkasi, a remote village in Tamil Nadu.

Read: 'Complete fiction': Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu reacts to estranged wife's allegations

Meanwhile, Zoho is also preparing to foray into the EV space though it may be very long down the road and no official announcement has been made by the company.