Dev Anand Ramasamy, Vice President of Product Management, Zoho
SaaS major Zoho on Wednesday announced the launch of Zoho Classes 2.0, the latest iteration of the company’s made-in-India Learning Management System (LMS) that is set to take on global incumbents like Google Classroom and Moodle.Launched initially during the COVID-19 pandemic as an assignment tool, Zoho Classes has since been built into an AI-powered academic platform for both government and private educational institutions. Speaking to businessline, Dev Anand Ramasamy, Vice President of Product Management, Zoho said that company’s focus with Zoho Classes 2.0 is centred on ‘regulated’ institutions that are under the purview of government agencies like UGC, AICTE, NMC and various state boards. Ramasamy believes that the challenges in the education system today come from a combination of digitally native students who do not connect with traditional teaching methods, teachers who are overburdened with administrative work, and the increasing compliance requirements for schools and colleges. Zoho Classes currently has about 500 institutional sign-ups globally and is used by major institutions like SRM Institute, Sishya School, Chettinad Health City, CGIHM, Vidya Mandir, Grace International School, and GSE Institute. The company is also making Zoho Classes 2.0 available at no product licensing cost to all Central and State Government schools, colleges, and universities, in a move to democratise access to educational technology. Additionally, any teacher with up to 100 students can use the platform free of charge.“With Zoho Classes we want to bring AI in the middle of this equation. The goal is to provide a personalised digital learning experience for students while simultaneously helping teachers and institutions with repetitive administrative and regulatory tasks,” he said. On the business side, while the platform accounts for a small share of Zoho’s revenues, Ramasamy said it has seen good growth. Roughly one-third of Zoho Classes revenue comes from India, he adds.The platform comes with multiple AI learning tools for students like an AI tutor, interactive quizzes and course modules for students. As for teachers, it can automatically generate lesson plans, create complete courses and help in evaluations. While the latest version is currently being launched, it is expected to be rolled out globally in the next few months.The company has already partnered with several Indian state governments to introduce Zoho Classes 2.0 across public schools and colleges. It also plans to target institutions who already use Zoho’s other enterprise tools like Zoho CRM and HRMS.Ramasamy listed better AI integration and multi-language capabilities as its strengths relative to other players in the market, while being priced more competitively. The platform currently supports all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Published on July 15, 2026
