Anand Mahindra said he had downloaded the app ‘with pride’, leading to a heartwarming interaction with Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu.
Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, has come out in support of Zoho’s Arattai — the instant messaging app being touted as a Made-in-India alternative to WhatsApp. Taking to social media, the billionaire industrialist said he had downloaded the app ‘with pride’, leading to a heartwarming interaction with Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu.
“Downloaded Arattai today… With pride,” wrote Mahindra on X (formerly Twitter) as Vembu, the brains behind the ‘Swadeshi’ app, responded with a gracious message.
“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,” wrote Vembu.
In what turned into a heartwarming conversation, Mahindra quoted Vembu’s post saying: “We’re cheering for you, @svembu”.
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 @anandmahindra
this gives us even more determination 🙏 https://t.co/5MtyhTkRZf— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) October 4, 2025
Arattai vs WhatsApp?
For years, WhatsApp has held an unshakable monopoly in the messaging space, with over half a billion active users in India. Amid the new wave of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign, Arattai has emerged as a tough competitor, seeking to take on the global behemoth.
In recent days, Arattai has witnessed a massive surge in usage. According to Vembu, the app recorded a 100x increase in traffic within just three days, with new sign-ups rising dramatically from 3,000 per day to 350,000 per day.
Last month, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged users to switch to Arattai, describing it as “free, easy-to-use, secure, safe, and made in India.”
