Mani Vembu presents at ZohoDay 2025.Melody BrueI recently attended ZohoDay 2025 in Austin, where Zoho laid out the story of its evolution from an SMB-focused company to a major enterprise platform contender. During the event, Zoho reaffirmed the companys core values and recent financial success, announcing $1.5 billion in revenue in 2024 with continued growth in users, customer acquisition and customer retention. Zohos financial growth has also enabled it to invest significantly in AI technologies.Ive followed Zoho for many years the company is a client and it has been consistent in its focus on taking care of customers and driving innovation to serve them. Zoho has always touted its privately held, publicly responsible ethos as the driving force in its ability to do this. In this piece, Ill examine the companys current strategic focus, how recent leadership changes are positioning it for its next phase of growth and how all of this was communicated at the ZohoDay event.The Right People In The Right PlacesAt Moor Insights & Strategy, one of our core beliefs is that a companys leadership will tell you much about its ability to succeed. Zoho was built from the ground up by CEO Sridhar Vembu, a former Qualcomm engineer who cofounded the company in 1996 as AdventNet. In January of this year, Vembu announced he was stepping down as CEO to become Zohos chief scientist. In his new role, Vembu will focus fully on R&D initiatives, as well as his personal mission of rural development, which fits neatly into the companys transnational localism strategy (more on that later).As Sridhar Vembu shifts his focus to R&D and AI research, Mani Vembu is taking over as the new CEO of the Zoho division. This puts Mani in charge of the companys overall platform and more than 55 applications, as well as the popular self-serve Zoho.com platform. Mani, who is Sridhars son, joined Zoho in 1996 as a software developer. Over the years, he transitioned through various roles, including product management. He was instrumental in launching Zohos cloud division in 2005, starting with one of the first online word processors in the market. For many years, Mani has been deeply involved in Zohos growth, from developing individual applications to overseeing the creation of 50 apps.There are other executives in place to fill other parts of Sridhars former role. Cofounder Shailesh Kumar Davey has been named CEO of Zoho Corporation, the broader organization encompassing all of its products and services. (This feels to me akin to a chairman role.) Tony Thomas, another cofounder, will lead Zohos U.S. operations. Rajesh Ganesan will head ManageEngine, Zohos IT management software division. This new executive org chart seems more like a series of startups stitched together, or perhaps portfolio companies under the careful guidance of a private equity firm.This is not accidental or ambiguous its part of the ethos of the company. When I interviewed Mani, he told me that business-unit autonomy is par for the course. We are a very decentralized organization where everyone is empowered to make their own decisions. So, for example, if Im focusing on a market vertical, then Im empowered to make the decision. So, there is no day-to-day monitoring. We are not metric-driven in that sense, he said.Zohos Transition To A Platform ModelAs the new CEO, Mani outlined Zohos transition to a platform model, creating domain-specific app platforms that balance comprehensive functionality with targeted features. These platforms cover customer experience, collaboration, employee experience, finance, IoT and IT service management. The platform model is not new for Zoho. The company started as a platform and later transitioned to being an app vendor. As the company is strengthening its position in the enterprise market, refocusing on a platform model means empowering the partners and customers to do more with what we offer as a technology, according to Mani.It also means refining its messaging and processes to address enterprise needs across various industries and regions. Zoho is strategically scaling up its enterprise presence, focusing on organic growth and word-of-mouth referrals while gradually expanding its marketing efforts. We want to get more visibility by going for more events enterprise events engaging with a lot of CEOs, Mani said. So those things, as part of GTM, we want to do, but making sure that we go with the word-of-mouth reference. That is actually fundamental to how we want to grow.Growth From Products And From RegionsRegardless of Zohos marketing strategy, the company is going to have substantial product-led growth. With more than 50 apps on the platform, many users are likely to discover and adopt products on their own. Zoho has long excelled at self-service onboarding, allowing users to sign up and explore products autonomously. This bodes well for growth at the individual and SMB levels but is likely not a strong enterprise customer acquisition strategy.To reach enterprise customers, Zoho is taking a regional approach, identifying opportunities in specific industries and verticals within different regions of the world. For example, in India where Zoho was founded, the companys focus is on banking, financial services and automotive dealer management systems. In other regions, its targeting real estate and construction. In each region, we identify the pockets of opportunities, Mani told me.Zohos Vertical And Cultural StrategyZoho recognizes the importance of understanding local cultures and business practices. It employs people in various regions with deep knowledge of local markets, helping the company tailor its approach to each areas needs and opportunities. This is where Sridhar Vembus passion for transnational localism comes into play. Zoho has taken a multipronged approach to corporate responsibility that allows it to give back to the community while also benefitting from the community in the form of dedicated employees, who have access to education, training and affordable housing in the areas where the company has invested.This is a business strategy that I would describe as being both socially responsible and self-serving because it simultaneously empowers underserved communities with global opportunities while fostering cost-effective expansion. Ultimately, this approach should benefit customers through a more diverse and locally attuned service model and Zohos results suggest the approach is working well.Zoho focuses on reaching underserved verticals and micro-verticals by creating industry-specific apps, integrating vertical-specific apps, co-creating solutions with large customers and empowering partners to build vertical solutions for smaller niches. For example, the upcoming launch of Vertical Studio, a developer platform to create customized, industry-specific software solutions, aims to allow partners to build scalable, multi-tenant apps for specific industries, fostering a mutually beneficial strategy for Zoho, partners and customers. This region- and industry-specific focus should give Zoho a clear view of the customers it serves as well as new business opportunities.Zia And Beyond: Zohos AI PushAs to be expected from an application platform, Zoho has been actively adding AI functionality across its portfolio. Much like its larger competitors Microsoft and Google, the companys AI strategy is to embed AI deeply within the context of its products rather than have AI function as standalone intelligence. At ZohoDay, the company discussed its efforts to build its own large language models and AI algorithms rather than rely solely on third-party providers. This should give it more control and customization capabilities for its AI offerings. Company leaders also emphasized its approach of developing smaller, more targeted AI models rather than relying on large monolithic models. This approach should optimize for specific use cases and reduce compute and data requirements.While Zoho continues to invest in developing its own AI capabilities, including proprietary LLMs, the company has adopted a pragmatic approach of integrating third-party AI technologies to provide immediate value to its customers while building its long-term AI strategy. Zoho employs a combination of in-house AI models developed through its Zia platform, and it integrates external AI technologies from companies including OpenAI and Nvidia. Zohos overall focus seems to be on delivering practical, contextual AI capabilities deeply integrated into the Zoho platform and tailored to the specific needs of enterprise customers.The company recently expanded its Zia AI platform with new tools, including Zia Agent, Agent Studio and Agent Marketplace. It also announced enhancements to Ask Zia, a contextual AI assistant embedded across Zoho applications, including Zoho Analytics, where Zia aims to improve overall business intelligence without requiring extensive technical expertise. At ZohoDay, the company stressed the importance of having robust privacy and permission controls in AI systems to ensure secure and compliant data usage. This is particularly crucial for enterprise clients, which demand robust privacy and compliance standards.Scaling A Unique Approach: Zohos Path To Enterprise SuccessLooking ahead, Zohos success in the enterprise market will hinge on its ability to effectively balance its core values with the demands of larger, more complex organizations. While fostering innovation and autonomy, Zoho must also prioritize robust governance and strategic alignment alongside the companys decentralized structure to ensure cohesive execution across such a diverse portfolio. The challenge lies in scaling Zohos unique, organic growth model to penetrate deeper into enterprise accounts while maintaining the personalized touch that has been its hallmark. As Zoho seeks to expand its presence in the enterprise market, I look forward to seeing how it tackles these challenges while maintaining its unique identity in the tech landscape.Moor Insights & Strategy provides or has provided paid services to technology companies, like all tech industry research and analyst firms. These services include research, analysis, advising, consulting, benchmarking, acquisition matchmaking and video and speaking sponsorships. Of the companies mentioned in this article, Moor Insights & Strategy currently has (or has had) a paid business relationship with Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Zoho.Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades