Business software provider Zoho Corp., whose U.S. headquarters is in Del Valle east of Austin, has opened an office in New Braunfels that eventually could be home to more than 100 employees. And the company has plans to move into the Bastrop area as part of its growth plan.

Zoho recently set up shop in 10,000 square feet of office space at the historic Saengerhalle building in New Braunfels. Twenty people currently work at the new office, and Zoho plans to expand the New Braunfels workforce to more than 100 people in the next couple of years.

“For the longest time, New Braunfels has been a smaller community, but it has seen a tremendous amount of growth over the years. With a company like Zoho coming in, it helps continue that expansion in the community,” says Bear Ravenscroft, a Zoho account executive in New Braunfels.

Employees in booming New Braunfels, whose population grew 57 percent from 2010 to 2020, work in customer service and sales.

“Opening an office in New Braunfels is an extension of Zoho’s ongoing transnational localism effort, designed to provide residents of small towns and cities around the world local employment opportunities so that they can experience a better quality of life while supporting the local economy,” Zoho says in a December 16 news release. “New Braunfels enjoys a lower cost of living, stellar education and healthcare systems, and an overwhelming amount of talent.”

Establishing an office in New Braunfels enables Zoho to benefit from the city’s talent pool, as well as from the workforces in Austin and San Antonio, the company says.

“We want our employees to be able to purchase a house, be able to start a family, and not have long commutes to work,” says Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho. “New Braunfels was the perfect city for this compared to the large metros nearby. Expanding into smaller towns may not make us the cool kids on the block, but we’re planting the seeds now to create an environment.”

Aside from expanding to New Braunfels, Zoho is plotting an office in or near Bastrop, according to Vegesna.

Within the next three to five years, Zoho envisions employing roughly 700 people in Texas. Zoho’s Del Valle office has more than 100 employees. Across 25 countries, Zoho employs more than 10,000 people.

Zoho moved its U.S. headquarters from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Austin area in 2019. At the time, the company said the headquarters head count eventually could exceed 1,000. Zoho occupies a 375-acre company-owned farm in Del Valle, where existing structures serve as offices.

Chennai, India, is the global headquarters for Zoho.