Tech Veterans Leave C-Suite Positions to Launch AI Startups in India

Tech veterans ditch C-suites for the AI grind

Senior executives from companies like HP, Dell-EMC, and NTT are leaving their positions to start AI ventures. Sharad Sanghi from NTT India started Neysa, and Rajiv Srivastava, Rajesh Janey, and Rajnish Gupta founded CoreOps.AI. Ankur Jain started Jivi AI in healthcare. These executives see a significant opportunity for innovation with AI in India.A number of top tech executives are joining the AI bandwagon. Senior executives who have helmed top multinationals such as HP, Dell-EMC, NTT among others are either giving up coveted CXO positions or embarking on a second innings to start their own ventures - most of them backed by GenAI. Sharad Sanghi, founder of NetMagic and former managing director of NTT India, the largest data centre company in the country, has started AI cloud venture Neysa, which already has the backing of US-based venture capital firm NTTVC, Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Nexus Venture Partners. Similarly, Rajiv Srivastava, former HP India boss and COO of HP in APAC and Japan and CEO and MD of Redington India in his last role, has joined Rajesh Janey and Rajnish Gupta, former chiefs of EMC-Dell and Zebra Technologies, respectively, to launch CoreOps.AI, an AI/ML firm. The fourth founder of CoreOps.AI is US-based Ankur Sharma, founder and CEO of TaxSpanner (acquired by Zaggle). Similarly, Ankur Jain, the former chief product officer of BharatPe, has made a leap from fintech to healthcare, starting Jivi AI. Backed by Andrew Ng's AI fund, Jivi is building a health assistant for patients and doctors. Dale Vaz, a seasoned Amazon and Swiggy executive, has cofounded AI-driven stock trading platform Sahi and uses GenAI for several use-cases. "Each of us has built large companies, taken them from small scale to a large scale in India, so it was time for people like us to make a real impact," said Srivastava, the former HP executive who has close to 40 years of experience. "If you look at India's tech journey, everyone has either played the labour or the cost game--we really don't have much innovation coming out. With new tech, especially AI, we are betting on the huge opportunity to create innovative products--and well-rounded companies--out of India." Noida-headquartered CoreOps.AI, which has partnered with SAP and Salesforce, is currently bootstrapped. It has close to 40 employees and signed up two large clients recently, said cofounder Janey. "It's exhilarating, exciting and exhausting at the same time," he said. In 2022, Sanghi, the then CEO of NTT's Global Data Centre business, realised the potential of GenAI cloud and GPUs. He tried to persuade NTT's management to get into the space early. "Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that never happened. And, so, I thought, it's time for me to do it--maybe we can start this on our own. And that's how we started Neysa--me and cofounder Anindya Das," he said. Das was the deputy head of engineering at NTT. Sanghi, who also founded Netmagic in 1998, said, "It's great getting back to the startup culture." Netmagic was acquired in 2012 by NTT Japan, a first in the Indian data centre space. Asked about the transition, Sanghi said, "Of course, things are very different. In a large company you have a legal team, product team--you just ask and things get done. But in a startup, we are just 31 self-motivated folks." Jivi AI cofounder Ankur Jain had a similar transition experience. "I would say the biggest challenge was a mindset shift. In my first 90 days as a founder, I learned more about myself than in years as a CPO," he said.

Tech Veterans Ditching C-suites for the AI Grind

A number of top tech executives are joining the AI bandwagon. Senior executives who have helmed top multinationals such as HP, Dell-EMC, NTT among others are either giving up coveted CXO positions or embarking on a second innings to start their own ventures -- most of them backed by Generative AI (GenAI).A number of top tech executives are joining the AI bandwagon. Senior executives who have helmed top multinationals such as HP, Dell-EMC, NTT among others are either giving up coveted CXO positions or embarking on a second innings to start their own ventures -- most of them backed by Generative AI (GenAI). Sharad Sanghi, founder of NetMagic and former managing director of NTT India, the largest data centre company in the country, has started AI cloud venture Neysa, which already has the backing of US-based venture capital firm NTTVC, Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Nexus Venture Partners. Similarly, Rajiv Srivastava, former HP India boss and then COO for APAC and Japan, has cofounded CoreOps.AI. Srivastava, who was CEO and MD of Redington India in his last role, joined Rajesh Janey and Rajnish Gupta, former chiefs of EMC-Dell and Zebra Technologies, respectively, to launch the AI/ML firm. The fourth founder of CoreOps.AI is US-based Ankur Sharma, founder and CEO of TaxSpanner (acquired by Zaggle). Ankur Jain, the former chief product officer of BharatPe, has also made a leap from fintech to healthcare, starting Jivi AI. Backed by Andrew Ng's AI fund, Jivi is building a health assistant for patients and doctors. Dale Vaz, a seasoned Amazon and Swiggy executive, has cofounded AI-driven stock trading platform Sahi and uses GenAI for several use-cases. "Each of us has built large companies, taken them from small scale to a large scale in India, so it was time for people like us to make a real impact," said Srivastava, the former HP executive who has close to 40 years of experience. "If you look at India's tech journey, everyone has either played the labour or the cost game -- we really don't have much innovation coming out. With new tech, especially AI, we are betting on the huge opportunity to create innovative products -- and well-rounded companies -- out of India." Noida-headquartered CoreOps.AI, which has partnered with SAP and Salesforce, is currently bootstrapped. It has close to 40 employees and signed up two large clients recently, said cofounder Janey. "It's exhilarating, exciting and exhausting at the same time," he said. In 2022, Sanghi, the then CEO of NTT's Global Data Centre business, realised the potential of GenAI cloud and GPUs. He tried to persuade NTT's management to get into the space early. "Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that never happened. And, so, I thought, it's time for me to do it -- maybe we can start this on our own. And that's how we started Neysa -- me and cofounder Anindya Das," he said. Das was the deputy head of engineering at NTT. Sanghi, who also founded Netmagic in 1998, said, "It's great getting back to the startup culture." Netmagic was acquired in 2012 by NTT Japan, a first in the Indian data centre space.