Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Reveals Why Company Won't Go Public: 'The Reality...'

Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has revealed that the company will not go public despite the push in recent months amid the new wave of the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign. Describing Zoho as an 'industrial research lab', Mr Vembu stated that products like Arattai developed by the company would not exist if the company had launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

"We understand the push for Zoho to go public. But let me state the reality: Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company that faces quarter-to-quarter financial pressure," wrote Mr Vembu in a X (formerly Twitter) post.

"It was a "hopelessly foolish" project, and even our employees had expressed scepticism that Arattai would ever gain any traction. We built it because we felt we need that kind of engineering capability in Bharat. We need a lot lot more of such capabilities in Bharat and we are on it."

Mr Vembu detailed that the Chennai-headquartered company was currently investing in ambitious, long-range R&D projects spanning compilers, databases, operating systems, security, hardware, chip design, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

"In addition, we have invested in many R&D intensive companies that we know won't make money soon," he said, adding that Zoho ignored short-term profits as long as the company did not lose money -- a proposition that would be hard to sell to Wall Street or Dalal Street, if an IPO were to be released.

"We have a culture of founders and senior executives living frugally, like how good scientists and engineers in ISRO would live. To us that is the essence of Bharat. Japan operated that way when it was developing."

See the viral post here:

We understand the push for Zoho to go public. But let me state the reality: Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company that faces quarter to quarter financial pressure. It was a "hopelessly foolish" project, and even our employees had expressed scepticism… https://t.co/vuELimKCv0

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) September 28, 2025

Also Read | Women Revive Pure Garba Magic In Viral Video: "No Mic, No Instruments"

'Rare and refreshing'

As the post went viral, social media users applauded Mr Vembu's clarity of thought regarding the future of his company.

"Even though it's an underdog and superficially a late entrant, Arattai will win. Zoho can be India's most important software company," said one user, while another added: "When you open the doors for capital, eventually capitalism walks in."

A third commented: "Sridhar, thank you for sharing this. It's rare and refreshing to hear a founder articulate why not to go public with such clarity."

A fourth said: "Very true, I still feel our IT giants despite having hordes of cash are refrained from investing into anything worthwhile in R&D."

In recent days, Arattai has witnessed a massive surge in usage as Indians seek an alternative to WhatsApp. According to Mr Vembu, the app recorded a 100x increase in traffic within just three days, with new sign-ups rising dramatically from 3,000 per day to 350,000 per day.