Sridhar Vembu, CEO and visionary founder of Zoho Corporation, is back in focus for a personal and financially draining legal stand point. Now called the 'Billionaire in a Village' for relocating his head office to rural Tamil Nadu, Vembu is currently embroiled in a high-stakes divorce case with estranged wife Pramila Srinivasan, which includes claims and assets amounting to nearly ₹1.5 lakh crore ($18 Billion).
The Man Behind the Empire
Having been born into a humble family in Tanjavur, Sridhar Vembu is an IIT Madras graduate who earned a PhD from Princeton University. After a stint at Qualcomm, he co-founded AdventNet in 1996, which was later renamed Zoho.
Zoho is a bootstrap success story compared to most tech giants—it has never raised venture capital. Today, Zoho boasts a set of more than 50 apps and more than 100 million users worldwide and rivals Microsoft and Salesforce among them.
Net Worth in 2026
As of Jan. 2026, the Vembu household can be said to be worth ₹31,500 crore ($3.8 Billion). But the valuation of his business Zoho has sky-rocketed to around ₹1.5 lakh crore.
Because Zoho is a private company with no investors outside the company, the ownership structure is at the centre of the ongoing legal battle. It is a very large subsidiary of Vembu who has a stake and he shares big shares in the sister and brother of the company itself.
The ₹1.5 Lakh Crore Divorce Dispute
This litigation that started in the United States of California court over the allegations Pramila Srinivasan made are the focus of contention. The primary sources of controversy here are:
- Accusations of Asset Transfer: Pramila claims that Sridhar has secretly transferred the majority stake in Zoho to his siblings without her consent, effectively denying her claim to the marital estate.
- The Valuation: The value of Sridhar’s personal liquid wealth is a fraction of the total, and the “divorce case value” of ₹1.5 lakh crore reflects the total enterprise value of the Zoho empire that Pramila alleges the two developed during their marriage.
- The Autism Care Factor: The couple has a son with autism. Pramila, who has remained in the US to care for their son in a specialized way, accuses Sridhar of leaving the family behind to reside in India, after which he has emphatically disputed it, saying his work lies elsewhere in rural India.
Sridhar Vembu’s Response
Vembu has repeatedly insisted that the share conversions were legitimate and took place several years ago to secure the company’s long-term sustainability. He has frequently taken to social media to profess that his attention is still on “Rural-shoring” making high-tech jobs for villages like Tenkasi instead of the accumulation of personal luxury.
“I've never led a life of luxury. My wealth is with the people I hire and the villages I build,” Vembu said recently. Even amidst legal headroom, Zoho has proved its sustainability by launching in the semiconductor manufacturing sector with a $700 million investment just last month.
