Zoho to raise headcount at Tenkasi centre to 1,000 by 2019
Chennai-headquartered cloud services firm Zoho Corporation will be ramping up its workforce to 1,000 people from 300 by the end of the year at its Tenkasi office.
Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho Corporation stated, “Currently, there are about 300 people working in Tenkasi and about 70 in Renigunta development centres. We are planning to ramp it up to 700 and 200 respectively in 18 months.”
This will take the company’s total headcount to 8,000.
The announcement about the expansion came as Zoho launched the new version of its Office Suite which it has positioned as an alternative (and collaborative) toolset to Microsoft and Google. Zoho’s ‘Workplace’ platform, which includes the new suite of office tools, is expected to drive significant revenue growth in the coming months.
Besides ramping up the headcount at Tenkasi, the SaaS firm will also be opening a data centre in Australia in the middle of the year, followed by data centres in New Zealand and Brazil in the following months.
Zoho employs more than 7,000 people at its three centres, of which more than 6,500 are in Chennai. Zoho is planning to slow down hiring at Chennai campus on account of space constraints. Simultaneously, the firm is also going to enter newer markets such as Singapore, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Mexico and increase the number of salespersons in existing markets such as China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It also has a sales office in rural Japan.
Vembu added, “Our focus is to become a large global Indian company by expanding our domestic and global footprint. At the same time, we are increasing our headcount in rural areas such as Tenkasi and Renigunta to reverse brain drain. Though, we will have offices around the globe, 80% of employees will be based in India. Our revenues have been growing at 30% and soon, we will be a $1 Bn firm.”