Pramila Srinivasan is the estranged wife of Sridhar Vembu, the founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, currently embroiled in a high-profile divorce battle. The case has garnered international attention due to a recent order from a California court mandating Vembu to post a $1.7 billion (approximately ₹15,000 crore) bond. This order stems from concerns about asset transfers and community property rights during their marriage.
Srinivasan is an accomplished professional in her own right, holding a PhD in electrical and computer engineering. She has built a career in healthcare technology, founding companies focused on electronic health records and digital health solutions. She is also the president and a board member of The Brain Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting research and treatment for autism.
Srinivasan was born on June 9, 1968, and is a native of New York. She married Sridhar Vembu in 1993, and they lived together in California for nearly 30 years. The couple has a 26-year-old son who has been diagnosed with autism.
According to court documents, the marriage began to show cracks around 2020, with disagreements arising over the control and ownership of Zoho's assets. In late 2019, Vembu relocated from Silicon Valley to his ancestral village, Mathalamparai, in Tamil Nadu, India. He cited a desire to focus on rural development and decentralised business operations as the reason for his move. Srinivasan has stated that Vembu informed her of his intent to divorce via WhatsApp in November 2020, and formal divorce papers were filed in August 2021.
In court filings, Srinivasan has alleged that Vembu abandoned her and their son in the U.S. and made fictitious transfers of Zoho shares and intellectual property to his siblings without her consent. She claims these actions violate California community property laws, which stipulate that marital assets should be split 50/50 in a divorce. Vembu has denied these allegations, calling them "complete fiction" and asserting that he has provided full financial support to his estranged wife and child. His lawyer, Christopher C. Melcher, has called Srinivasan's allegations "outrageously false".
The California court ordered Vembu to post the $1.7 billion bond to protect Srinivasan's financial interests in the marital assets acquired during their marriage. The court expressed concerns regarding Vembu's financial transparency and past transactions involving Zoho entities and related assets in the U.S. The court also appointed a receiver to oversee several U.S. business entities associated with Vembu and placed a temporary hold on a major corporate asset transfer. Vembu's lawyer has contested the bond order, calling it invalid and based on misleading allegations. He also stated that Vembu had offered Srinivasan 50% of his shares in Zoho's parent company, but she refused.
Sridhar Vembu was born into a Tamil Brahmin family in 1968 in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. His father was a stenographer at the Madras High Court, and his mother was a homemaker. He has several siblings, including Sekar and Radha Vembu, who are also IIT Madras alumni and involved with Zoho Corporation. Sridhar Vembu completed his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from IIT Madras in 1989 and earned his MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University. In 1996, Vembu co-founded AdventNet (later renamed Zoho Corporation) with his brothers.
