Zoho has subtly turned up the heat in India’s fintech scene, rolling out an assortment of new point-of-sale devices aimed at changing how small shops, mid-sized enterprises, and even large corporations handle money movement.
The launch features a sleek all-in-one POS terminal, a compact smart POS unit for smaller counters, and a static QR soundbox designed to make payment confirmations swift and audible. Co-founder Sridhar Vembu, speaking about the rollout on X, hinted that this wasn’t just another product release—it’s part of a deeper commitment to building secure, fully homegrown payment solutions that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with global offerings yet remain rooted in serving Indian businesses at every scale.
Partnering to Strengthen Infrastructure
There’s more happening under the hood. Zoho has signed a partnership with NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd, the billing wing of the National Payments Corporation of India. It’s not merely a handshake deal—it’s a move to address lingering challenges Indian enterprises face when dealing with daily transactions, with an eye on shoring up the country’s already fast-growing digital payments backbone. For Vembu, the conversation centers on creating a payment environment that blends improved connectivity with smoother operational workflows, rather than layering technology for technology’s sake.
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Integrating Payments into Conversations
Away from the hardware buzz, Zoho is about to weave payments directly into its instant messaging app Arattai. Soon, through Zoho Pay integration, users will be able to send and receive money without ever leaving a chat thread. Peer-to-peer transfers from inside the app put Arattai in the same market ring as WhatsApp Pay, and that means Zoho is stepping into direct competition in an already crowded arena. The goal is straightforward yet ambitious—turn routine communication into a hub for commercial activity, especially for small business owners who live inside their messaging platforms.
Debut at Global Fintech Fest 2025
All these announcements took center stage at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai this year, where Zoho also pulled the curtain off a set of financial tools aimed at simplifying the gritty side of corporate money management. Think virtual accounts for collections, automated payouts, and systems to settle marketplace transactions without endless spreadsheets. The company even linked its payments engine to Zoho Payroll, letting employers handle salary transfers directly from any bank account while tracking the process in real time. According to Zoho, this ensures payroll hits employee accounts securely and punctually—no more chasing bank confirmations at month-end.
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From Licence to Ecosystem
Zoho’s deliberate march into payments picked up pace after receiving its payment aggregator licence in early 2024. Since then, Zoho Payments has quietly embedded itself into the company’s main finance tools—Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Billing—forming a unified ecosystem where bookkeeping, billing, and payments happen in lockstep. For SMEs trying to digitise without piecing together disconnected services, this bundling is the selling point.
A Nudge for Indian-Built Tech
The timing couldn’t be better for “Made-in-India” campaigns. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently put his endorsement behind Zoho’s products for government use, a nod to the strength and security of indigenous enterprise tech. Arattai, too, has seen a spike in new installs lately, signalling that its appeal is spreading beyond niche circles into wider daily usage.
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Looking Past Finance
Earlier this year, it bought Asimov Robotics from Kerala, locking in a foothold in automation hardware research. July saw the introduction of Zoho’s own large language model and a suite of AI-powered tools meant to help companies craft their own intelligent digital agents. More recently, they launched “Vani,” a sub-brand tailored toward creative collaboration across remote and hybrid offices, merging visual tools with AI assistance. Whether it’s payments, software, or robotics, Zoho seems intent on knitting together an entire tech ecosystem rather than chasing one vertical at a time.
