Zoho Corporation, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company based in Chennai, India, is developing a large language model (LLM) to compete with Google’s PaLM 2 and OpenAI’s GPT models. Zoho has been working on artificial intelligence (AI) for ten years, and its LLM is currently under development. The model will be capable of summarising, paraphrasing, and adapting to new tasks. Zoho’s R&D team is working on the project, which is being overseen by the CEO and founder, Sridhar Vembu. Praval Singh, Zoho’s VP of Marketing, did not reveal any specific timeline for the LLM’s completion.
Zoho has integrated 13 apps with ChatGPT in order to serve customers. The firm now plans to build an LLM of its own. Its decision to create an LLM is in response to controversial comments by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, during a visit to India. He had claimed that it was hopeless for start-ups with $10 million of funding to build LLMs. Members of the local business community and government have decided to take up his challenge.
Last month, Zoho launched a cross-platform web browser called Ulaa, which is designed to compete with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. Based on the Chromium platform, the browser offers DuckDuckGo as its default search engine and a built-in ad-blocker. It also supports cross-platform syncing and is free.
Zoho’s business is faring well in India. The firm has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 65% in the mid-market and enterprise segments. These two segments contribute to over half of its annual recurring revenue (ARR) in India. Globally, the firm recorded a 65% CAGR in the same categories. Six sectors drive Zoho’s growth story in India: manufacturing, retail, banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), pharmaceuticals, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and IT.
