AWS Generative AI Executive Raj Aggarwal Departs to Launch New Startup

AWS generative AI exec leaves to launch startup | TechCrunch

Raj Aggarwal is leaving AWS after nearly three years as the company's GM of generative AI and revenue acceleration, according to a LinkedIn post Aggarwal published Wednesday. "I'm proud of the pioneering work our team did in generative AI from its earliest days," Aggarwal said in his post. "We built what might be the world's first large-scale generative AI products -- launched to tens of thousands of sellers, used hundreds of thousands of times, driving a 4.9% increase in pipeline generation." Aggarwal played a notable role in AWS' recent push into generative AI. In the LinkedIn post, he mentioned his contributions to AWS's AI foundation models, Bedrock AI development platform, and Amazon's business-focused generative AI assistant Amazon Q. Aggarwal plans to "return to his roots" and launch a new company, he said in his post -- but didn't provide any specific details. Aggarwal is no stranger to entrepreneurship. He launched Localytics, a mobile analytics and messaging platform, in 2009, prior to joining AWS. Localytics raised more than $69 million in venture funding before Upland BlueVenn acquired it in 2020. Aggarwal left the company in 2017. Aggarwal later founded Demand Sage, an AI-driven sales analytics platform, in 2018. Demand Sage went on to raise $3 million in venture capital before exiting to Snap in April 2021. Aggarwal remained at Snap as head of product and growth in the R&D group before leaving to join AWS in 2022. TechCrunch has reached out to Aggarwal for more information and AWS for comment.

AWS' Generative AI GM Departs To Form Startup

'I had the privilege of advising our biggest customers on their AI execution and serving as a key design partner for Amazon's suite of AI products, including Bedrock, Q and our foundation models,' says AWS' former GenAI leader, Raj Aggarwal. Amazon Web Services has lost one of its key AI innovators and leaders with the departure of Raj Aggarwal, who says he is building a new startup company. Aggarwal was general manager of GenAI and revenue acceleration at AWS for the past three years, in charge of building AWS generative AI products and increasing sales pipeline. "I had the privilege of advising our biggest customers on their AI execution and serving as a key design partner for Amazon's suite of AI products, including Bedrock, Q and our foundation models," said Aggarwal in a LinkedIn post. [Related: Google-Wiz Deal: 5 Huge Microsoft, AWS, AI And Google Cloud Things To Know] Aggarwal said he was proud of the pioneering work his team did in generative AI from the $115 billion Seattle-based cloud company's earliest days. "We built what might be the world's first large-scale generative AI products -- launched to tens of thousands of sellers, used hundreds of thousands of times, driving a 4.9 percent increase in pipeline generation," he said. Aggarwal is the former CEO of sales insight specialist Demand Sage, as well as for the mobile analytics and messaging platform provider Upland Localytics. Generative AI has been one of AWS' largest investment areas in recent years, including the launch of dozens of new products such as Amazon Q and its GenAI platform Amazon Bedrock. This month, AWS launched a slew of AI innovation including agentic capabilities for developers in Amazon Q, where three new agents will allow developers to reduce workloads. In 2018, Aggarwal co-founded and became the CEO of Demand Sage, which leveraged AI and machine learning technology targeting the SMB market. Demand Sage was acquired by social media company Snap Inc. in 2021. Aggarwal was also the co-founder and CEO of Upland Localytics from 2009 to 2017. Aggarwal said on LinkedIn he left AWS "to return to my roots and start a new company." "We transformed our [AWS] team into true AI experts, and I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved together," he said. "Now, I'm excited to get back to building from the ground up and look forward to sharing more soon."