Taking more VC money would affect investee firms' to bring out successful products, says Zoho founder

Sridhar Vembu said there will be a constant pressure to develop new products to continue the growth, which might hinder the success of these products

IT product company Zoho Corp's founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu has said that raising venture capital fund would result in change of control of the companies, which would in turn affect their ability to bring out another successful product. Taking on his competition straightaway, while announcing the new presentation delivery tool Showtime app and the new Zoho mail, he said that Microsoft does not have as many features as Zoho does at present.

He said the company's new data centre is also being set up in India this year.

He said that for a company with one successful product that is funded by venture capital investors, it would be hard to build a second product. "The company would be under pressure to develop new products to continue the growth. However, the products developed under pressure would not be a big success," he told reporters. He said that Zoho has so far not raised any venture capital investment and has been keeping its culture driven by product people, with 28 products that have come out so far.

He said that the company is aggressively pursuing growth and expansion in the global market, but did not give more details on it. It currently has around 2,700 workers and six offices. It is developing its R&D centre in Chennai with more scope for expansion, and has another R&D centre with helpdesk in Thenkasi, in Tamil Nadu.

The company today announced launch of Showtime app, a presentation delivery tool allowing the presenter to share the presentation online and interact with audience during the presentation. The product could be used by enterprise customers remotely, on mobile phones or larger screens. The company is offering the product for free. The company also launched its new Zohomail, which has the features of social media integrated in it.

It has also launched SalesIQ in the US and European market, to help its customers to better analyse their customers and visitors in their websites. The product is coming into the market space where currently Google Analtyics and Kissmetrics are offering services.