Zoho Announces Partnership with StartupSouth to Empower Startups

Zoho, a global technology company, announced that it grew by 50% in Nigeria in 2022. The company, as part of its Zoho for Startups programme, has also partnered with StartupSouth, an organisation that works towards the development of startups from South and South-East Nigeria.

Zoho will also be providing its contract management solution, Zoho Contracts, free for three months to help businesses improve compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Law. These announcements were made on the sidelines of Zoholics Nigeria, the company’s annual user conference, held in Lagos.

“Our growth is a direct result of Nigerian businesses embracing cloud technology, especially unified platforms, to digitally transform and build resilience to adapt to challenging market conditions. Zoho’s unified technology stack, built from the ground up, allows us to meet such transformation needs of businesses with robust solutions that deliver consistently seamless user experiences at unbeatable value,” said Ali Shabdar, Regional Director, MEA, Zoho.

Zoho’s growth in Nigeria is primarily driven by adopting Zoho One, the operating system for business, and Zoho Workplace, a unified enterprise collaboration platform. Additionally, Zoho CRM Plus (unified customer experience platform), Zoho Books (accounting software), and Zoho Desk (helpdesk software) are the other top-selling products in the country.

Zoho also grew its partner network by 22% and more than doubled its employee count in 2022 in Nigeria to reinforce its local presence and better serve its customers.

“Zoho is also one of the few vendors in Nigeria today that continues to provide their offerings in Naira, thereby protecting businesses from the fluctuating dollar rates, and ensuring that enterprise technology remains accessible to businesses of all sizes. Our partnership with #StartupSouth, and the special offer on Zoho Contracts, are further steps that underscore our commitment to serve the business community in the region,” said Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head, Zoho Nigeria.

Partnership with StartupSouth

Zoho has partnered with StartupSouth through its Zoho for Startups programme. As part of this partnership, startups associated with StartupSouth, new customers for Zoho, can avail of Zoho Wallet credits worth ₦ 470,000.

This credit can be used to purchase or upgrade any of Zoho’s 55+ products, including Zoho One, the operating system for business, over a period of 360 days. Zoho One offers a unified platform that brings together over 50 Zoho products from CRM to HR management.

The startups will also receive training to help them leverage Zoho’s products for their growth in a way that they can easily scale.

“We are happy to partner with Zoho, as they offer a wide range of business apps that can empower startups to quickly digitalise most of their business areas in one go, and streamline and unify their operations for better management and holistic visibility. With this partnership with Zoho, we are looking forward to helping budding businesses by removing access barriers to enterprise technology,” said Uche Aniche, Convener, #StartupSouth.

Zoho Contracts to help businesses improve compliance with NDPL

The Nigerian Data Protection Law came into force earlier this year. NDPL mandates all businesses to ensure that their contracts include provisions for data security and breach notifications, third-party vendors adhere to NDPA standards, and international contracts fulfil the criteria for cross-border transfer of personal data.

With Zoho Contracts, businesses can create contract templates with new/revised clauses for NDPA compliance, use analytics to quickly identify existing contracts with a specific clause, anonymise counterparty data on request, and track and monitor their contractual obligations with reminder alerts.