Zoho Corporation has made a raft of announcements on a busy day for the company. They range from expansion of its R&D, to the opening of a new campus, the acquisition of Asimov Robotics and a partnership with Kerala Startup Mission.
These announcements are designed to show Zoho’s continuing growth and investment in India. They were welcomed by officials in Kerala state, who see this as an example of how government and business can jointly deliver benefits. Those benefits include investment, jobs, education and a future path to encourage entrepreneurs.
K N Balagopal, Minister of Finance, Government of Kerala, said, “This collaboration with Zoho would be a significant step in strengthening Kerala’s local ecosystems by enabling intellectual property creation, product research, and development from rural areas. The Zoho campus at Kottarakkara, currently nearing completion, stands as a pilot model for this transformative approach.
“This is a consorted effort between multiple agencies which included, employers, skilling, academia, infrastructure, capital and public participation and could be adopted as a model for the rest of the state.”
A new campus and an internship programme
At the heart of these announcements is a new campus in Kottarakkara. Last year, Zoho opened an office in the town, but now it has made a much more significant investment. The campus will support up to 250 employees and will initially focus on AI and robotics research.
Kottarakkara is a small town with a population of around 30,000. One of the goals of this announcement is to develop support for the rural economy. To that end, employees and interns have been recruited from nearby smaller towns and villages. So far, 40 interns have been signed, and the company is actively looking to expand that number.
The intern programme is a key part of this announcement. These are nine-month internships divided into two parts. The first is a three-month skill development course that includes training in C, C++, and Python as mandatory elements.
After that, the interns move on to work on multiple projects for the next six months. It allows the company to evaluate them and offer future employment. Importantly, interns are paid during this time.
Partnering with startups and driving R&D
Alongside its new internship programme, Zoho has announced several new R&D associations. Those that have been named include Boson Motors, Vipus Advanced Materials, vTitan, Zentron Labs, Verdant Telemetry & Antenna Systems, Netrasemi, Genrobotics, Energy 24by7 and IIT Bombay.
Zoho intends to expand its R&D capabilities through these associations, but this raises several questions. How will it ringfence the research where there is overlap? Will it bring different companies together to accelerate shared R&D? What does this mean for the various divisions within Zoho?
At the same time, the company has announced a partnership with Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). It supports the growth of startups across Kerala State, offering office space, investment, support and mentoring. It plans to open a Deep Tech Product Studio as part of its plans to bring startups and organisations together. Zoho is the first major partner for this initiative and will offer mentorship and collaboration opportunities.
What is interesting here is how these may dovetail with the intern programme. For example, will Zoho create opportunities for interns it doesn’t employ to work at one of the R&D association partners?
Will Zoho support interns who want to build their own company by continuing their mentorship through KSUM? Does it see startups using KSUM as a potential source of future acquisitions? All three suggest significant opportunities.
Asimov Robotics
Based in Kalamassery, Kerala, Asimov Robotics has a particular focus on medical and healthcare applications. It brings experience in robotic simulation and control, machine vision, training, and virtual reality to those fields. It is also working on combining robotics and AI.
The current R&D activities for Asimov Robotics are being relocated to Kottarakkara. According to the announcement, they will be guided and mentored by Zoho’s team. The reason for the acquisition, according to the announcement, was to expand Zoho’s R&D capabilities into robotics.
By bringing that team to the new Kottarakkara campus, it makes it a centre of excellence for robotics and AI. With just 250 places available on campus, and Zoho consolidating its robotics and AI R&D there, will the campus be big enough?
If this is also to be a centre for training interns and supporting the R&D associations, it will need to accommodate a large number of people. While there is an existing office building, is this the start of something bigger?
Asimov Robotics doesn’t say how large its R&D group is. That makes it difficult to know how many will be relocated. However, its existing office is next to the Kerala Government Medical College.
It is also located within the Kinfra Hi-Tech Park and has access to the KMEA Engineering College and other higher education institutions. Will Zoho look to bring graduates from those locations into its internship programme? If so, how many?
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
At first glance, this announcement seems fairly routine. A new office, an acquisition and some R&D work. Only when you dig a little deeper does this get interesting. The acquisition of Asimov Robotics and its links to higher education will boost Zoho’s intern programme. It will also play well with the other R&D associations it has announced.
It will be interesting to see how this develops for Zoho. Opening an office and then creating a campus for a new R&D centre is a significant move for any company. Doing that in a state where Zoho had no presence until last year makes this even more significant.
So what else could Zoho do? Two major subsea cables land in Kerala State. One at Kochi, close to the existing Asimov Robotics office and one in Thiruvananthapuram, south of Kottarakkara. Will Zoho look to establish one or more data centre campus sites in Kerala? It would certainly boost its presence in both the state and India. It would also make sense when you consider the data demands of AI.
Whatever happens next, it will be interesting to watch what Zoho does in Kerala.
