Zoho announces Dh100m investment for UAE expansion

Zoho, a global technology company based out of India, on Tuesday announced an investment of Dh100 million in the UAE.

The privately-held company, which has over $1 billion in revenues, announced that in the five years since starting its operations in the UAE, which serves as its Middle East and Africa (MEA) headquarters, have grown 10 times, with a 5-year CAGR of 60 per cent.

In 2022, Zoho grew by 45 per cent in the UAE, which was the second-highest growing country globally. It has also doubled its employee base in the UAE as well as across the MEA region in the past year, by hiring locally as per its ‘transnational localism’ policy of being locally rooted while staying globally connected. The partner network in the country grew by 50 per cent in 2022.

“As part of our transnational localism strategy, when we expand into a region, we want to give back to the local community and be rooted in the local culture as we grow,” said Sridhar Vembu, chief executive and cofounder, Zoho Corporation, in Dubai on Tuesday.

“Over the past five years, we have invested in local hiring, growing our partner network, adding Arabic support in our products, and integrating with local payment gateways to adapt our solutions for the local market. We will continue to invest in growing our footprints in the country through hirings, upskilling programmes, localisation of products, integrating our solutions with local vendors, and partnering with organisations to help local businesses in their digitalisation efforts.”

The Dh100 million investment will be used to expand the company’s operations in the country, Hyther Nizam, president for MEA at Zoho Corp, said.

The company is privately held and is headquartered in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.