Sridhar Vembu Built Zoho Into A Global Cloud Services Champ. Now He Wants To Make Chips, Drones And Power Tools In India.

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of India’s Richest 2024. See the full list here.

Sridhar Vembu, cofounder and CEO of Chennai-based cloud services company Zoho, is venturing into manufacturing. Zoho has lined up several projects, ranging from semiconductors to power tools and drones.

The $1 billion (revenue) company confirmed it has filed an application with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to build a chip fab, but declined to name a location or say how much it will spend.

The move comes as India positions itself as a chip- and display-making hub, with the government offering financial incentives as well as tax subsidies and land parcels for factories. In a post on X, Vembu said: “This technology is vital for our nation…The government is very supportive and now is the time.”

The engineer has also made two investments in his home state of Tamil Nadu in line with his oft-stated goal of encouraging rural development. In May, he invested an undisclosed sum in drone startup Yali Aerospace and in July formed Karuvi to make power tools using locally sourced components. Zoho is 88%-owned by Vembu and his family, whose net worth rose by nearly a fourth to $5.8 billion.