Zoho has announced an AED 46 Million (US$ 12.5 million) investment as part of its strategic partnerships with local public and private entities in the UAE. The announcement came during GITEX Global. GITEX Global claims to be the largest and best-rated Tech and AI event globally in Dubai. The event has over 200,000 trade buyers from over 180 countries and is held across five days.
The investment has also helped over 7,000 UAE businesses, digitally transform their businesses with Zoho Applications. This equates to a twofold growth for Zoho in the country since 2022.
GITEX also enabled Zoho to introduce its new low-code IoT platform solution to the region, which was launched last month at Zoholics India.
The investment is part of Zoho’s Strategy to work with public-sector organisations and private companies to offer education and wallet credits. These credits allow organisations to adopt Zoho applications with lower barriers to entry.
Investing in UAE
Starting in 2020, Zoho has partnered with Dubai Economy and Tourism Department (DET), Flat6Labs, Dubai Culture, and IFZA to provide businesses of all sizes access to digital tools, training, and resources.
Its upskilling partnerships have seen relationships with Middlesex University Dubai, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education – Dubai. These have enabled young people to enter the workforce with better digital skills. For Zoho, importantly, they also have a familiarity with Zoho Applications. If they set up their own business, Zoho would hope that their solutions are first on any shortlist.
The approach has enabled Zoho to gain users across several industry sectors. These include IT hardware and services, real estate, construction, retail, transportation, and logistics. Organisations have implemented several Zoho solutions. The popular solutions adopted in UAE have included flagship products such as Zoho One, Zoho Books, Zoho Workplace, Zoho CRM Plus, and Zoho People.
The approach has helped Zoho achieve an impressive 57% conversion rate from new customers. It means that once the wallet credits run out, these firms have seen the benefit that the Zoho applications have delivered to the business and continue to leverage them at full price.
Hyther Nizam, President of Middle East and Africa, Zoho Corp, commented, “We believe that strategic partnerships are essential for driving digital transformation in the UAE. By investing in partnerships with local organisations, we are able to provide comprehensive solutions to businesses of all sizes, helping them migrate to the cloud and realise the benefits of digital technologies. Our goal is to empower UAE businesses to achieve their full potential and contribute to the nation’s economic growth and development.”
IoT launches in UAE
Zoho also launched the availability of Zoho IoT in the UAE. The platform enables organisations to connect third-party sensors to the IoT platform. The platform then collates and analyses the data to provide deep insights across a range of use cases.
The launch use cases included:
- Industrial IoT
- Energy Management
- Smart Buildings
- Indoor Air Quality
- Smart Facilities
The solutions will enable businesses in the UAE to transform data from IoT sensors into insights. These insights can assist with predictive maintenance, anomaly identification, and forecasting trends.
Nizam added, “We believe that connecting Things with business workflows is key to creating a seamless customer experience. Zoho IoT is a platform-first solution designed to offer customisable and flexible features for a range of industries. With its low-code, interoperable, and secure framework, Zoho IoT simplifies adoption while delivering powerful functionality that elevates operational efficiency and customer experience beyond standard offerings.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Zoho continues to build its footprint in the Middle East. What is unclear from this announcement is how much Zoho is committing in the future in terms of investment. However, with the success of its historical investment, it seems likely that it will continue the strategy of investing. Both in upskilling people and offering wallet credits to attract businesses to its platform.
Zoho IoT is a departure from Zoho’s standard user application approach. This business system is well-developed and is actively used in the UAE. One of the most luxurious sites in Dubai uses the Zoho IoT Indoor Air Quality Monitoring Solution to monitor temperature, humidity, CO2 concentration, particulate matter, etc., for better environmental conditions.
