Zoho Invests In Bangalore Based Zentron Labs, Plans To Invest in More Startups

Zoho Corp, an IT product company, has picked up a minority stake in Bangalore based Zentron Labs for an undisclosed amount.

Launched back in 2012 by Krishnan Ramabadran and Ramgopal Vallath, Zentron provides automation systems for processes that require visual checking. The startup used the industrial cameras in conjunction with Computer Vision algorithms to deliver innovative and custom Machine-Vision solutions that perform automated visual inspection. Whether in Manufacturing, Food, Agriculture or ecommerce, its solutions enable its clients to deliver promised quality, provide a superior experience to customers, and show continuous growth in the business.

“We spoke to several venture capital funds when we were in our early days. But somehow we were not convinced that taking money from them was the right thing.. So, we met Sridhar Vembu. The investment from Zoho is not just about money; it is also about the expertise and mentoring we get,” said, Krishnan Ramabadran.

Zentron is now exploring developing several products relating to its focus area of automating visual checking and quality checking and is targeting revenue of INR 1 Cr. in FY15.

Zoho, on the other hand, is now open to investing in more startups, and has already closed a few more fundings, which will be announced soon.

“We have done investments in our own way. Some of these companies have not yet announced their products so far; so I won’t talk about them.. There is one medical equipment company, and one semiconductor firm, and some others. We will announce the products and let the products do the talking. These are mostly companies of our friends or peers who are doing interesting things,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO & Founder, Zoho Corp.

Zoho offers around 30 software products under three broad segments – collaboration, business and productivity tools, it competes with the likes of Microsoft, Google etc. It has recently announced the launch of Zoho.in, a suite of applications for companies to run their entire business on Zoho. The company also has announced its plans to open a data center in India to serve Indian businesses.