Zoho Launches App For Solopreneurs Amidst 35% Growth In South Africa

South Africa continues to shine as a high-growth market in the global expansion of Zoho, the India-headquartered technology company, which this month announced a 35% year-on-year revenue growth in the region for 2024, driven largely by enterprise-level adoption and a growing independent workforce.

Announced at the company’s annual user conference, Zoholics South Africa, the numbers are part of a broader success story for Zoho in Africa.
The company has seen its upmarket momentum – meaning mid-sized and enterprise businesses choosing its solutions – rise by an impressive 67% in South Africa alone.
Zoho also unveiled a new mobile-first application, Zoho Solo, designed specifically for the country’s booming solopreneur segment.
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Zoho Solo is not just another productivity app – it’s a tailored tool designed to support South African one-person businesses managing everything from photography and consulting to freelance design and beyond. The app consolidates core business functions like client management, task tracking, invoicing, and expense reporting, all into a sleek mobile package.

One standout feature is the ability to customise invoices, a capability often missing in comparable tools. It also includes real-time financial dashboards, income/expense tracking, and even mileage logging—ideal for solopreneurs who are constantly on the move. These logs are time-stamped and stored for audit-ready records, helping users remain compliant while focusing on growth.

The app is fully functional offline, a crucial feature in areas with inconsistent internet access. Early feedback has been positive, with over 1’000 users in South Africa already testing the app. Based on this feedback, Zoho has localised the platform – pricing it in South African Rand to protect users from exchange rate shocks and adapting the interface for regional preferences.

Zoho Solo is more than just an app. It is a companion for every South African solopreneur navigating the ups and downs of independent business.

// President of Zoho Middle East and Africa, Hyther Nizam

True to the company’s long-standing ethos, Zoho Solo is free from ads and does not sell user data, even in its free version. The company operates its own data centres, meaning full control over data security and privacy – a growing concern in the age of AI and surveillance capitalism. Notably, customer data is not used to train Zoho’s AI models.

This commitment reflects a broader company philosophy. Zoho remains one of the few large-scale tech companies that is privately owned and profitable, with no VC funding influencing its decisions. The company employs over 18’000 people globally, has 120-million registered users, and is active in more than 150 countries.

Zoho’s expansion in South Africa is part of a wider regional footprint, with offices already established in Cape Town and Johannesburg, as well as in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and UAE. According to Nizam, the company’s African operations, which began in 2018, have grown their revenue sevenfold over the past seven years – translating to a 35% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Our growth here isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a deliberate strategy: investing in local offices, hiring locally, pricing in local currency, and committing engineering resources to develop regional products like Zoho Books’ South Africa edition.

// President of Zoho Middle East and Africa, Hyther Nizam

The company’s flagship bundle, Zoho One – which includes over 55 integrated applications – has been particularly well received. Top-performing products in the region also include Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, and CRM Plus. Key industries adopting Zoho’s platforms include IT services, financial services, retail, and real estate.

While Zoho has traditionally appealed to small businesses and start-ups, its South African operations are experiencing a significant shift into larger enterprise segments. The 67% growth in upmarket momentum is driven in part by the flexibility of Zoho’s platform-based architecture.

Customers can choose from three layers of engagement: off-the-shelf apps, customisable platforms (like its CRM framework), and developer tools for bespoke solutions. This flexibility allows companies to tailor solutions by industry—from real estate CRMs to medical systems—all built on a single stack and hosted on Zoho’s own infrastructure.

Unlike many competitors who build on AWS or Azure and pass those costs to customers, we run our own data centres with open-source software and lean infrastructure. This allows us to offer highly competitive pricing while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability.

// President of Zoho Middle East and Africa, Hyther Nizam

With South Africa playing a key role in Zoho’s long-term strategy to reduce dependency on the U.S. market – now down to 35% of the company’s global revenue – the spotlight on African markets will only grow stronger. As Zoho edges closer to its goal of 1-million paying customers globally, it’s clear that South Africa’s role in that journey will be more than just supportive – it will be central.

As for what’s next? While Nizam remained tight-lipped on the opening of local data centres, his message was clear.