How Zoho cracked the 1 billion revenue mark without external investment…and stayed true to itself

Zoho now offers a huge range of front- and back-end software solutions and cracked the magic $1 billion revenue mark in 2022. As a privately held company, however, Zoho has not had to provide exact figures. And that’s precisely the secret of Zoho: throughout Zoho’s history, it has never received external funding from investors. This allowed Zoho to ensure that the company could grow and do business according to its own specifications and vision. By developing on its own terms, Zoho has managed to build a strong internal corporate culture that focuses on R&D and product development and continues to grow slowly but steadily. And without having to deal with and answer to investors. “It has always been our mantra to invest in people and products. That is why most of our investments go into research and development. We have been around for 25 years already and we are here to stay!” says Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corporation. The decision not to raise venture capital, go public, or be bought out has given Zoho a lot of freedom – the freedom to innovate, to learn from mistakes, and to challenge conventional thinking and go its own way. Zoho has invested time and hard work to independently build its software portfolio from the ground up, rather than taking on the work of others.