Anand Mahindra joins Arattai messaging app, says downloaded with...; Zoho's founder Sridhar Vembu reacts

Arratai app

Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, has extended his support to Zoho’s indigenous messaging platform, Arattai. On Saturday, Mahindra announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he had downloaded the app “with pride,” sparking a warm exchange with Zoho co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu. The interaction quickly went viral, drawing attention to the Made-in-India alternative to WhatsApp.

Taking to X, Anand Mahindra posted, “Downloaded @Arattai today… With pride.” The message was seen as a show of encouragement for India’s growing technology ecosystem and local innovation. Sridhar Vembu, who leads Zoho Corporation and has been a vocal advocate for building indigenous technology solutions, responded soon after with a heartfelt note.

“I was in a meeting in our Tenkasi office with our Arattai engineers, working out refinements to the app, and a team member showed this tweet. Thank you, Anand Mahindra — this gives us even more determination,” Vembu wrote on X.

Mahindra later quoted Vembu’s post with a brief but uplifting reply: “We’re cheering for you, @svembu.” The exchange, seen by thousands of users, highlighted a moment of mutual appreciation between two leading voices of Indian enterprise.

Launched by Zoho as part of its homegrown technology push, Arattai — which means “casual chat” in Tamil — aims to provide a secure and India-based alternative to WhatsApp. The app supports text and voice messages, voice and video calls, and multi-device connectivity across up to five devices.

In recent weeks, Arattai has seen a rapid rise in user activity. Vembu revealed that traffic surged by nearly 100 times within three days, with new registrations jumping from 3,000 per day to 350,000.