'Padma Shri' A Huge Honour, Says Silicon Valley Star Sridhar Vembu

Tech tycoon Sridhar Vembu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of software development firm Zoho Corporation, who is one of the Padma Shri awardees announced by the government of India, said that he felt honoured and humbled after receiving one of the highest civilian awards in the country.

The government on Monday evening announced Sridhar Vembu's name for the Padma Shri award.

Vembu tweeted on Tuesday, "Receiving the Padma Shri award is a huge honour and I feel humbled. I dedicate this award to our employees, my extended family, for keeping the faith. I want to thank friends and well-wishers for all your messages that have poured in. Your support keeps me going."

On the Zoho corporation website, Vembu said, "We are a state-of-the-art tech company with a very old-fashioned approach to company building."

According to the Zoho website, the company has 60 million users worldwide, including customers like Whirlpool, Fossil, Rogers, Levi's, Philips, Ola, Xiaomi, Renault, Netflix, Mahindra, L'Oreal, Nike, Sony, Apple, IIFL, Daimler, Sodexo and Zomato, among others.

According to 2020 Forbes report, Vembu is among the 59 richest persons in India.

Vembu, who is in his early 50s, founded 'AdventNet' in 1996 to make software products at a time when IT services were the rage. In 2009, he renamed the company 'Zoho Corp' to reflect the transition from a software company serving network equipment vendor to an innovative online applications provider.

Vembu, a Silicon Valley star valued by Forbes at nearly $2.5 billion, moved to a small village in Tenkasi in southern Tamil Nadu in October last year.