Meet Tamil Nadu's richest woman; self-made IITian's net worth is Rs 32800 crore

Radha Vembu is the richest woman in Tamil Nadu, co-founder of the software company Zoho, with a net worth of approximately Rs 19,000 crore (USD 2.2 billion). Radha Vembu, the sister of Zoho CEO and co-founder Sridhar Vembu has managed to rise a whopping 103 places in the past year, making her the second-richest self-made woman in the world in the software and services industry, according to M3M Hurun Global Rich List of 2023.

While her brother Sridhar Vembu owns merely 5% of Zoho, Radha Vembu holds a 47.8% share in the company. Radha Vembu’s other brother Sekar is also a stakeholder in Zoho but he prefers to remain away from the limelight. Over Rs 2700 crore was profit for Zoho in 2022. Her ownership of the cloud-based business software provider Zoho Corp. is the primary driver of Radha Vembu's enormous wealth. 

Radha Vembu was born in 1972 in Chennai. Her father Sambamurthy Vembu was a stenographer in Madras High Court. Radha Vembu has completed her graduation in industrial management from IIT Madras. She works as a product manager for the email service, Zoho Mail. Zoho Corp is competing with several big companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, and others. At Chennai's National Higher Secondary School, she finished her primary education.

In 1996, while pursuing higher education Radha Vembu started a company along with her brother Sridhar, who holds a Princeton Ph.D. in electrical engineering. AdvenNet was the original name of the business before being changed to Zoho Corporation. 

Radha Vembu is also the director of Janaki Hi-Tech Agro Pvt Ltd, an agricultural NGO, and a real estate company named Highland Valley Corporation Pvt Ltd.