Zoho’s programme impacts 9,000 start-ups in India

CHENNAI: The Chennai-based global technology company, announced that it will be launching its Zoho for Startups programme globally, starting with the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

The programme, which turns five this year, was launched in 2017 with the goal of removing access barriers to enterprise technology for early-stage start-ups.

It has impacted more than 9,000 start-ups in India through partnerships with over 150 collaborators that include incubators (70+), accelerators, government bodies, and co-working spaces across 19 states.

Zoho provides collaborator-associated start-ups with Zoho Wallet credits, training, consultation, and support.

The Wallet credits can be used to purchase any of Zoho’s 55+ applications.

This includes Zoho One, the operating system for business that provides a unified platform of over 45 applications.

“Since the time we launched the Zoho for Startups programme, India has seen a 12 to 15% growth YoY in number of start-ups, making it the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world,” said Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy, Global Head of Zoho for Startups. “Government initiatives like Digital India and Startup India have been critical in creating a conducive environment for entrepreneurs, and we are happy to have been one of the first to have partnered with them. In its fifth year, we are taking the programme global, starting with the MEA region. We will be partnering with collaborators in countries where we have presence to help develop the startup ecosystem in those economies.”

Most of the start-ups participating in the programme are from Bengaluru, followed by NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune.

However, over the past two years, there has been an uptick in start-ups from tier 2 towns like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Coimbatore, and even tier 3 cities like Indore and Bhubaneshwar.