Zoho Becomes 1st Bootstrapped SaaS Company To Cross 100 Mn Users

Chennai-based SaaS unicorn Zoho has surpassed 100 Mn users across its various business applications, making it the first self-funded SaaS company to achieve this landmark. The company now serves over 700K businesses across 150 countries.

The SaaS unicorn saw its user base grow from 1 Mn in 2008 to 100 Mn in 2023. The company crossed $1 Bn in annual revenue last year. 

“This is an impressive milestone for any organisation, but it’s particularly sweet for us as a bootstrapped company that has never raised external capital. And we are not done yet. We have an impressive innovation pipeline covering the next 10 years and are investing in deep technologies to serve billions of users around the world. We’re working towards it, and we want to thank all of you for your continued support,” said Sridhar Vembu, cofounder and CEO of Zoho.

Best known for its online office suite applications, Zoho provides tools for customer relationship management (CRM), project management, social media management and so on.

Some of Zoho’s customers include startups like BYJU’S, MakeMyTrip, BigBasket, Paper Boat, Zomato and brands like PUMA, Axis Finance, Samsonite, Tata Play Fiber, Star Health & Allied Insurance, Mercedes-Benz India, SpiceJet, IIFL Finance, Meril Life Sciences, Blue Star, Bosch, Saint-Gobain, Deloitte and McDonald’s.

In addition to its core services, Zoho recently launched ‘Ulaa,’ a privacy-focused web browser designed to protect user data by blocking trackers and website surveillance.

Founded in 1996 by Vembu and Tony Thomas, Zoho has more than 12,000 employees globally. Despite a business slowdown, the bootstrapped unicorn posted a net profit of INR 2,749 Cr in FY22, registering a 43% jump from INR 1,917 Cr in FY21. 

The SaaS giant competes with the likes of Freshworks, Hubspot, Salesforce, Microsoft and many other Indian and international tech majors. Globally, Salesforce is the largest CRM by user base, with more than 150K companies served, including Walmart, Amazon, AWS and Spotify, among others. The company has also captured nearly 40% of the global cloud-based sales software.