At Zoholics UK in Birmingham this week, Sachin Agrawal, UK Managing Director, Zoho, delivered the keynote. In it, he gave an update on what Zoho has and will deliver to the UK market. Zoho has seen 43% annual revenue growth and has tripled its staff numbers in the UK over the past two years. Customer numbers have grown substantially, with more than 55,000 paying customers in the UK now.
That growth has prompted a move from Bletchley to a new office within Milton Keynes, planned for Q1 2026. The total headcount in the UK, including ManageEngine staff, is around 70 people. Zoho continues to look for new staff with seven open roles advertised on LinkedIn in the UK alone.
The new office will enable the company to grow substantially and accommodate around 100 desks. Agrawal explained that the company supports hybrid working within the UK. Many staff work around 2 days a week in the office, but with a mandated 2 days a month for everyone.
Some staff, notably sales teams working in the regions, come to the office less frequently than others. This is a mature approach, which will enable the office to support the growth of over 100 people in the UK. The expansion has seen growth across various teams, including marketing, customer support, sales, and partner sales.
A new data centre region in the UK
Already listed on GCloud, Agrawal also announced that the company will open a new data centre region for the UK. This will include a primary and secondary data centre, enabling Zoho to offer data sovereignty for public sector organisations and those regulated private sector firms that require this.
The plan is to make this available in Q1 2026 as well. The investment in a data centre is a testament to the success that Zoho is having. Not only is it reinvesting in people and infrastructure, but it is also putting resources into its transnational localism initiatives.
Agrawal commented, “We understand the shift to customers wanting to host their data within the boundaries of the UK, which is particularly important in industries such as the public sector and financial services. Data privacy and protection continue to be at the core of our operations and are enhanced further with our new data centre.”
Transnational Localism in the UK
Initiatives in the UK continue with a mix of different sponsorships and partnerships across the UK. Zoho aims to provide local teams with in-country expertise to support their digital transformation and the business needs of local customers. It is also aiming to create self-reliant local communities and economies. Its support of local communities includes several sponsorship deals. Notably
- Continued sponsorship of Teddington Hockey Club to help promote health and fitness in children.
- Sponsorship of the rugby club Sale FC mini and Junior teams.
- Sponsorship of the basketball team, MK Breakers
- Earlier this year, MKFM announced sponsorship from Zoho. The local radio station also runs business community events and networking sessions.
Zoho also has several education initiatives around the country. It has a partnership with the Open University that gives Zoho Books access for free to students enrolled in the B250 Intermediate Financial Accounting module. The firm has also provided guest lecturers for AI-focused courses at Oxford University and Exeter University.
Industry and government partnerships
Zoho has also forged relationships with bodies such as Tech UK and Manchester Digital. It also participated in the India Global Forum 2025. It delivers a series of events in the UK that offer a strategic vision on how the UK and India aim to lead global standards in bilateral cooperation.
As an active corporate member of Tech UK, it participates in industry panels. It also provides content to help create further digital education, as well as working with the organisation to bridge the gap between the government and the technology sector.
Its active membership in Manchester Digital has enabled it to provide tech and support to digital businesses in Greater Manchester. Zoho has hosted webinars, participated in events, and provided content to help drive digital business knowledge. I asked Agrawal about whether it offers credits to startups similar to those recently announced in the Middle East.
He answered, “We have something like this as part of our Zoho for startups in the UK, and we do this for the incubators who partner with us. There are a few of these incubators (including Manchester Digital) that are our channel to do this.
“We would be happy to support if there is any industry or government initiative towards this. But we’ve not discovered an opportunity. We have not been approached by anyone.“
The organisation and Zoho jointly sponsor these initiatives. It seems a good opportunity for the government to help startups in the UK. The program seems to work in other countries, so why not the UK?
Product Enhancements
Zoholics also provided an opportunity for the audience to learn about the recent developments across the Zoho platform. Over the past few months, Zoho has been rolling out significant updates to its AI platform.
In July, it announced the launch of pre-built Agentic AI Zia Agents. There are now over 100 agents available on the Zoho Marketplace. Customers can develop their own agents with Zoho Studio. It also unveiled a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling organisations to create cross-application workflows.
The final element was the launch of Zia LLM, its own large language model, which it will continue to develop and expand. It means that organisations can be assured that their data, even if anonymised, does not leave the Zoho data centre to take advantage of other LLMs. However, companies can still choose to take advantage of other LLMs.
Agrawal also announced that the firms continue to support localised features for Zoho Books. Already an HMRC recognised software provider for VAT, it has now added MTD for ITSA. It will mean that sole traders and landlords will be able to electronically submit to HMRC to comply with regulations that come into force in April 2026. For individuals, MTD for ITSA will be introduced in two phases:
- from April 2026, for those with a qualifying income over £50,000
- from April 2027, for those with a qualifying income over £30,000
Zoho also shared the latest features available for its award-winning privacy-focused browser, Ulaa. This browser has recently added enterprise capabilities, enabling organisations to achieve a level of governance, security, and visibility that is lacking in many individual browsers.
Agrawal commented, “In a constantly moving landscape impacted by geopolitical tensions and economic instability, we are focusing deeply on enhancing the customer experience we provide to our UK customer base.”
Leading the UK growth
Zoho continues to grow from strength to strength, with some larger firms utilising the company’s applications. These include Sparex Limited, with over 500 employees, an agricultural manufacturer providing parts and products to help repair tractors and farm machinery. They use Zoho One.
Other existing enterprises that leverage Zoho applications include Kingspan, SI Global, and The Hut Group.
Other notable UK customer wins or accounts that have expanded significantly in the past year include:
- Health Innovation Network South London helps connect the NHS, industry, academia, third sector, and local organisations to drive innovation in patient care using Zoho One
- Compass CHC, specialists in NHS continuing healthcare funding using Zoho One
- Synertec Ltd offers consultative document management services, capturing, transforming, and delivering documents for hundreds of customers across various business sectors, especially healthcare and government using Zoho One
- StudyIn, the world’s most trusted higher education specialists. Currently implementing Zoho One.
- Impact Foods Group Ltd is a market-leading school catering company focused on providing healthier food to children and promoting a positive food culture among pupils, and uses Zoho One
- Eastlight Homes is a provider of social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership homes in various locations in Essex. It uses Zoho CRM Plus.
Agrawal concluded, “Investment in our new office space enables us to continue to strengthen our growing team, ensuring that we not only deliver the best software solutions, but the best service and support from those with an excellent local knowledge of the market to our UK customers.
“The UK is our largest and longest served market in Europe, and our third largest globally, with huge growth potential. We are committed to investing further to continue to deliver what our customers want and need.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Zoho is going from strength to strength in the UK. The Birmingham event, which has around 1,000 attendees, is likely to be held again in the modern ICC venue. With tube strikes in London, it was to Birmingham’s benefit, and the event went smoothly with many opportunities to network and learn about Zoho and its products.
Agrawal and other Zoho speakers left no doubt that Zoho is committed to the UK, and the Investment in a new office and data centre is significant. The Zoholics tour now continues around the rest of Europe.
