Zoho boosts UK investment with new data centre & AI tools
Zoho has reported 43% growth in the UK and announced further investment initiatives, including the opening of a new office and data centre and a significant expansion of its UK-based workforce.
The company will relocate its UK office from Bletchley to Milton Keynes in the first quarter of 2026, aiming to accommodate its expanded team and provide room for further hires. Zoho has tripled its UK staff numbers over the past two years, with current roles spread across sales, customer support and marketing as it expands its customer-facing operations.
A new UK data centre is set to open during the same quarter, designed to allow customers to keep data within UK borders and to support the continued delivery of artificial intelligence-powered solutions. According to Zoho's UK strategy, these developments are part of the company's Transnational Localism programme, which focusses on equipping local teams with the expertise to support local customers in their digital transformation journeys and in fostering local economic resilience.
Technology expansion
Zoho offers a suite of more than 55 applications covering sales, marketing, accounting, customer support and productivity tools. At its customer event in Birmingham, the company announced the expansion of its compliance solutions for UK users. Zoho Books has been officially recognised by HMRC for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for ITSA), enabling sole traders to meet the UK's latest digital tax requirements. This builds on existing HMRC recognition for VAT and extends compliance to income tax, a regulation shift due to take effect from April 2026 for those with qualifying incomes over GBP £50,000 and from April 2027 for incomes over GBP £30,000.
The company has unveiled several AI advancements due for release to UK and European customers in the coming months. These include enhancements to Zia, Zoho's AI-based assistant for its CRM solution, targeting increased productivity and strategic effectiveness. Zia will offer predictive tools to assess sales opportunities and identify customers at risk of leaving, as well as generative AI-powered content, real-time sales anomaly identification, and comprehensive customer and market insights for strategic decision-making.
Additionally, Zoho is introducing Zia Agents - AI-powered bots designed for a wide array of business functions, including sales, marketing and customer service. The Zia Agent Marketplace already features over 100 pre-built agents addressing tasks such as warehouse management, events, human resources and finance. Users will also be able to build their own custom agents using natural language queries and configure strict security protocols to align with organisational policies.
Zoho will showcase its newly launched Ulaa Enterprise browser, tailored to the specific security and management needs of enterprise customers, which underlines its emphasis on privacy and operational visibility.
Renewed UK focus
Sachin Agrawal, Zoho's UK Managing Director, said, "In a constantly moving landscape impacted by geopolitical tensions and economic instability we are focusing deeply on enhancing the customer experience we provide to our UK customer base. We understand the shift to customers wanting to host their data within the boundaries of the UK, which is particularly important in industries such as the public sector and financial services."
"Data privacy and protection continues to be at the core of our operations and is enhanced further with our new data centre. Investment in our new office space enables us to continue to strengthen our growing team, ensuring that we not only deliver the best software solutions, but the best service and support from those with an excellent local knowledge of the market to our UK customers. The UK is our largest and longest served market in Europe, and our third largest globally with huge growth potential. We are committed to investing further to continue to deliver what our customers want and need."
Over the past year, Zoho has secured or grown relationships with several UK businesses and organisations, including Sparex Limited, Health Innovation Network South London, Compass CHC, Synertec, StudyIn, Impact Foods Group and Eastlight Homes. Most of these customers are utilising Zoho One, the company's integrated suite of business applications, while Eastlight Homes has adopted Zoho CRM Plus.
Local partnerships and education
Zoho has also focused on expanding its UK partner network, with the number of premium partners doubling in the past twelve months. These partners provide a range of services including reselling, system integration, support and distribution.
Beyond commercial initiatives, Zoho has participated in wider community engagement and education efforts. These initiatives include sponsoring children's sports clubs such as Teddington Hockey Club, Sale FC rugby club, and MK Breakers basketball team, as well as partnering with the Open University to give students hands-on access to Zoho Books for skill development. The company has contributed guest lectures at Oxford and Exeter universities, engaged in AI policy debate in the House of Lords, joined the India Global Forum, and maintained active membership in digital and technology organisations such as Tech UK, Manchester Digital and local group MKFM.
Zoho's activities in the UK will continue to centre around supporting business digitisation, maintaining strong privacy practices, and contributing to local professional and educational ecosystems.
