Global tech company Zoho announced today that it will be opening a new office in Johannesburg to accommodate its growing employee base in the country and cater to its customers. The company has seen the net new customer growth of 75% in South Africa in 2021, and doubled its employee base since opening its first office in Cape Town.
In addition, Zoho and the Institute of African Royalty (IAR), a startup and SME incubator, have entered into a strategic partnership to remove access barriers to enterprise technology for small and medium businesses, and help them in their digital transformation journey.
The qualified SMEs that are a part of IAR will receive Zoho Wallet Credit worth R27,000 that can be used to avail any of Zoho’s 55+ products, including Zoho One, the operating system for business. Zoho will also provide its expertise to help businesses optimally leverage cloud technology.
The company launched Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) in its digital signature application, Zoho Sign by integrating it with TrustFactory, one of South Africa’s most reliable identity verification providers. To further support ease of business for local companies, Zoho has announced integration with popular payment gateways Yoco and PayGate, which will allow its customers to accept online payments. These announcements were made on the sidelines of Zoho’s annual user conference, Zoholics South Africa.
“Zoho believes that its growth should be globally connected, but locally rooted—an approach it calls transnational localism,” said Ali Shabdar, Regional Director, Zoho Middle East and Africa. “We have followed this approach with our growth and expansion in South Africa. We have increased our employee strength, introduced local pricing, grown our partner network, invested in upskilling initiatives and partnered with local business communities. In continuation of our commitment to the country, we have partnered with IAR to help local businesses access enterprise technology, introduced AES in Zoho Sign to help businesses leverage the power and ease of digital signatures, and integrated local payment gateways that will make it easier for our customers to receive payments online.”
Zoho Sign also offers Qualified Electronic Signature in the European Union, Aadhaar-based eSign for India, Sign with Singpass for Singapore, Seiko time-stamping for Japan etc. South African businesses can also use Zoho Sign for international operations.
Growth in MEA
In 2021, Zoho grew by 52% in the Middle East and Africa region, which is the second highest growing region for the company. It grew its partner network by 55% and tripled its workforce in the region. The company also established its presence in seven countries, and set up new offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and South Africa.
This year, Zoho has already opened an office in Nigeria and plans to open another in Kenya, and three other countries in the coming year, with Dubai serving as the regional headquarters. The company also plans to continue hiring locally in other countries to serve its customers, as it expands its footprints across the region. Zoho recently launched the Kenya edition of Zoho Books, VAT and TIMS-compliant online accounting software.
