Global technology company Zoho Corporation has entered into a strategic partnership with Flat6Labs, a leading startup accelerator and seed investment company in the Mena region, to allow it access to Zoho's business applications.
This also includes Zoho One, a unified cloud-based suite of over 45 applications for sales, marketing, finance, HR, and other business processes, to startups associated with Flat6Labs across any of its six locations: Cairo, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Bahrain, and Tunis.
The partnership will help early-stage startups overcome entry barriers and leverage a cost-effective technology adoption plan to achieve digital agility in their business operations.
Hyther Nizam, President MEA, Zoho Corp, said: "An integrated digital platform that seamlessly connects business functions will become more relevant and useful for businesses in the post-pandemic world. As customers and other stakeholders increasingly engage online, businesses, especially startups and SMEs, can immensely benefit from cloud-powered enterprise tools that offer swift deployment and also scale smoothly as the company grows.
He says through this partnership with Flat6Labs, Zoho is committed towards digitally empowering the MENA startup ecosystem to unlock new growth potential and contribute better to the region's economic development."
Speaking on this partnership, Saleh Abbas, Senior Program Manager of Flat6Labs Bahrain said: “We are thrilled about partnering with Zoho Corp and the benefits it will be providing to our startup portfolio across the region. Zoho's wide range of business applications will give the startup founders working with us the necessary technological resources to streamline operations and strategically grow their business. We also look forward to working closely with our new partner on other collaborations in the future.”
Hassan Mansi, Program Director - StartEgypt, Flat6Labs, added: “Catering for our startups, located all over the region, has always been an utmost priority for us at Flat6Labs, irrespective of the market that we’re operating in. We’ve always been excited about working with partners who provide solutions specifically designed for startups and we believe that the offering provided by Zoho will enable our network of regional startups to accelerate their growth. We are looking forward to a long term relationship with Zoho and for more success to come.”
The key features of the partnership include:
• Wallet Credits: Eligible startups working with Flat6Labs will receive free Zoho Wallet credits worth $1,800, which can be used to used to purchase and renew any of Zoho's over 45 business applications, including the Zoho One suite.
• Digital Awareness and Engagement Initiatives: Zoho and Flat6Labs will jointly organise various activities like online training workshops and educative webinars by industry experts to help startups effectively navigate their digital transformation journey.
• Privacy Commitment: Zoho does not allow any third-party trackers to monitor usage behaviour and never sells any data to ad-based companies. Because Zoho has built its entire technology stack, the company is able to offer the most secure experience to its users without any compromise on data privacy. Users have the assurance that their data is confidential and protected, and only users themselves own the data.
• Operating System for Business: All of Zoho's business applications are built using the same technology stack, enabling contextual integrations, customization, and extensibility. This helps break down departmental silos, enabling a seamless convergence of data between apps across business functions as opposed to multi-vendor integration hassles.