Global tech company, Zoho, has officially launched its first Kenyan office, the seventh in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
In a bid to expand its presence in Kenya, the new office aims to cater to the company’s growing customer base in the country.
As Zoho’s first physical office in Kenya, it also houses a modern training center for Zoho’s customers and partners where they are expected to receive training on the different Zoho products as well as capacity building on different tech topics.
This follows the initial announcement that was made in March this year.
During the Zoholics Kenya event, Zoho Kenya country head Veerakumar Natarajan noted that they are committed to investing in local talent to provide the best possible service to their customers.
“We aim to be locally rooted while being globally connected. This is reflective of our strategy for business growth and expansion,” Natarajan said.
Zoho also announced a strategic partnership with the Institute for Small Business Initiatives (ISBI), which is part of Strathmore Business School.
This is part of its consolidated journey to work closely with local businesses and empower them digitally to drive growth and innovation.
Natarajan said through the partnership, SMEs will have access to Zoho products at a reduced and or free cost depending on the businesses’ capacity.
Free accessibility to Zoho products will be limited to a period of six months to one year.
“Imagine you are an SME with three employees and you want to integrate services like having mail, a website up and running, buying accounting systems, having meetings, and storing customer data in your systems,” Natarajan explained.
“Most of the time, you might end up spending $1000 purchasing some of these solutions and this is where this strategic partnership is going to work.”
In collaboration with ISBI, SMEs will also access training on Zoho that focuses on the implementation of the products and developing a company digitally.
"We are excited to work with Zoho to offer digital services on a platform that is stable and reliable. We believe that this partnership will support our businesses to scale up digitally," ISBI director Maryanne Akoth said.
Natarajan also noted that Zoho continues to work closely with startup ecosystem enablers to support different startups in Kenya.
These enablers include accelerators, incubators as well as venture capitalists.
“Most enablers come to us and say I support this number of startups but we want you to support them with your product. In this case, we give valid credits for six months to one year to the recommended startups,” Natarajan said.
“With the credits, they are able to buy any Zoho product that they need to integrate into their systems which basically means we give them money to buy our solutions.”
He, however, noted that they are welcoming on board any strategic startup ecosystem enablers to partner in supporting more startups in the country.
Zoho also announced investments across its entire portfolio, strategically designed to fuel the company's upmarket momentum and meet the evolving needs of mid-market and enterprise customers.
In 2022, Zoho’s Middle East and Africa (MEA) market grew by 43 per cent as compared to 51 percent in 2021 and 29 per cent in 2020.
Natarajan said that in five years, they have experienced 7x growth with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 per cent.
In Africa, Kenya is the number two fastest growing market for Zoho behind Nigeria, with a CAGR of 43 per cent.
The market uptake has grown by six times in five years.
“Zoho’s growth in Kenya can be attributed to the popularity of its flagship products. These include Zoho One, CRM, Workplace, Desk as well as the VAT and TIMS-compliant applications; Zoho Books, Invoice and Inventory,” Natarajan said.
“These products have helped businesses of all sizes in Kenya to increase productivity and streamline operations.”
