Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu Steps Down As CEO, To Assume New Role Of Chief Scientist

Sridhar Vembu, the founder of software-as-a-service startup Zoho Corp., on Monday said he is stepping down as the company's chief executive officer of the company.

After his exit as the CEO, Vembu would be assuming the charge of the company's chief scientist.

Zoho Co-Founder Shailesh Kumar Davey will serve as the new group CEO, and the other Co-Founder Tony Thomas will lead Zoho US.

Vembu, in a post on social media platform X, said, “I will step down as CEO of Zoho Corp and take a new role as Chief Scientist, responsible for deep R&D initiatives.” 

Vembu noted that in view of the various challenges and opportunities the company is facing, including recent major developments in artificial intelligence, it has been decided that it is best that he should focus full time on R&D initiatives.

“The future of our company entirely depends on how well we navigate the R&D challenge and I am looking forward to my new assignment with energy and vigor. I am also very happy to get back to hands-on technical work,” he further wrote.

Zoho has been increasingly focussing on research and development. Last year in August, the company had announced that it will set up an R&D centre in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“We want to create world-class R&D capability wherever we go and there is a speed limit to how fast you can scale up R&D teams and it is not at all like scaling up manufacturing plants," Vembu had stated last year.