Zoho launches its own POS devices; Arattai to integrate with Zoho Pay soon

Zoho Corp founder Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday announced the launch of the company’s new Point-of-Sale (POS) devices under its Zoho Payments division as the software company expands beyond enterprise solutions into payments and consumer technology.

“Last year Zoho became an RBI-authorized payment aggregator in India and launched our online payment solutions. We are now deepening our fintech footprint by unveiling our all-new Zoho Payments Point-of-Sale (POS) Devices,” Vembu posted on X.

“With our new devices, businesses can accept in-person payments while staying seamlessly connected to their broader ecosystem,” he added.

The POS device will accept payments, generate bills, print receipts and sync records across systems.

Vembu said Zoho has partnered with NPCI’s NBBL (NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd) to address business challenges and strengthen India’s digital payments infrastructure.

He also confirmed that the company’s messaging platform Arattai will soon integrate with Zoho Pay.

The announcement comes amid a surge in the popularity of Arattai, Zoho’s homegrown messaging platform launched in 2021, which has crossed 7.5 million downloads as of Friday.

The app has recently gained traction as a secure, user-friendly Indian alternative to WhatsApp, following endorsements from several Union ministers.

Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said he had switched to Zoho tools for office productivity, while Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that he and his team had migrated to Arattai, calling it a “Made in India” product that embodies the swadeshi spirit.

Industrialist Anand Mahindra also posted on X that he had downloaded Arattai “with pride” and wished it success.

The latest fintech push follows Zoho’s recent launch of its sub-brand ‘Vani’, aimed at offering intelligent and visual workplace collaboration tools such as whiteboarding, flowcharting, mind mapping, and integrated video calling.

Vembu had earlier said Zoho was working with think tank iSpirt, the group behind the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to develop open and interoperable messaging protocols for Arattai.

“These systems need to be interoperable like UPI and email, and not closed like WhatsApp today. We do not want to be a monopoly ever,” Vembu had said.