Sridhar Vembu Steps Down as CEO of Zoho Corp, Takes Up Chief Scientist's Role Vembu will step down as CEO of Zoho Corp and take a new role as Chief Scientist, responsible for deep R&D initiatives.
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Zoho Corp's billionaire founder Sridhar Vembu has stepped down as CEO of the SaaS company, he said on a post in social media platform X.
"In view of the various challenges and opportunities facing us, including recent major developments in AI, it has been decided that it is best that I should focus full time on R&D initiatives, along with pursuing my personal rural development mission," Vembu wrote.
Vembu said he will step down as CEO of Zoho Corp and take a new role as Chief Scientist, responsible for deep R&D initiatives.
Co-founder Shailesh Kumar Davey will serve as our new group CEO. Our co-founder Tony Thomas will lead Zoho US. Rajesh Ganesan will lead our ManageEngine division and Mani Vembu will lead the http://Zoho.com division.
"The future of our company entirely depends on how well we navigate the R&D challenge and I am looking forward to my new assignment with energy and vigor. I am also very happy to get back to hands on technical work," Vembu said.
Vembu's journey from a humble village in Tamil Nadu to founding Zoho Corp. is a story of resilience and innovation. He stands out from the flock as he has managed to build a billion-dollar software company without venture capital funding. Asked what his secret sauce is, he has always maintained that frugality is the key to building a profitable business.
Zoho's sales crossed the USD 1 billion mark in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The bootstrapped unicorn reported an operating revenue of INR 8,703.6 crore (USD 1 billion) in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), a jump of 30 per cent from INR 6,710.7 crore in FY22.
