A new sub-brand, Vani, has been introduced by bootstrapped SaaS unicorn Zoho to provide AI-powered “visual” workplace communication capabilities.

Vani will enable capabilities including whiteboards, flowcharts, diagrams, “mind mapping,” and video calling, the business said in a statement.  Depending on their purpose, it enables teams to concurrently integrate data from many sources, such as desktop computers, disks, and Excel sheets.

According to Karthikeyan Jambulingam, head of product at Zoho for Vani, “Vani offers a comprehensive set of tools for all departments within one canvas, eliminating the need for app-switching, process building, or complicated onboarding, ensuring that SMBs can seamlessly ideate and execute across all departments.”

A new “Space and Zone” paradigm is another feature of the new offering that enables separate teams to operate independently and cooperate when needed.  Additionally, the platform uses AI to assist clients in creating structured images and material, as well as in extracting important insights from particular portions.

In order to speed up workflows, it also provides a collection of pre-made templates and kits for planning, brainstorming, design diagrams, and social media visualizations.

The new product from Zoho is available everywhere for $5 a month per user, but in India, it costs INR 240. Additionally, there is a free tier with 25 MB of media uploads and restricted capabilities.

The SaaS behemoth reaffirmed that it will not keep client data or choose to monetize its AI-powered solution through advertising.

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A renewed interest in homegrown products coincides with the new launch.  Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of information technology, recently openly supported Zoho’s software package for official government work.

Zoho’s messaging app Arattai, which was first soft-launched in 2021, saw over 10 lakh downloads on the Play Store in the last week thanks to the push.  The platform’s end-to-end encryption, support for numerous local languages, potential cross-platform messaging, lack of advertisements, and emphasis on data protection drew in India’s tech-savvy consumers.

Notably, Vani is the most recent product to come out of Zoho’s finances in recent months.  Additionally, Zoho launched Zia LLM, an AI suite that was developed in-house and offers agentic AI solutions for particular business use cases, in July.  To increase its R&D capabilities in the field, the business also purchased robotics startup Asimov Robotics in the same month for an unknown sum.

Zoho was once called AdventNet Inc. when it was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas.  In 2009, the business changed its name to reflect its present identity. Numerous corporate functions, including sales and marketing, finance, email and collaboration, app development, and analytics, are supported by Zoho’s more than 50 integrated web applications.

It makes money by charging its clients on six continents subscription fees and selling its software.  The corporation operates offices in the US, Singapore, the UAE, and Japan in addition to India.

In terms of finances, Zoho’s revenue in FY23 surpassed $1 billion.  During the year, the unicorn’s operating revenue increased by 30% to INR 8,703.6 Cr from INR 6,710.7 Cr in FY22.  The net profit of the Chennai-based company increased from INR 2,749 Cr in FY22 to INR 2,836 Cr, a 3% increase.  It has not yet disclosed its FY24 and FY25 figures.