AWS generative AI exec leaves to launch startup

 Raj Aggarwal Departs AWS After Nearly Three Years, Plans to Launch New Venture

Raj Aggarwal is stepping down from his role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) after nearly three years as the company’s General Manager of Generative AI and Revenue Acceleration. The news was shared by Aggarwal himself in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.

Reflecting on his tenure at AWS, Aggarwal expressed pride in the groundbreaking work he and his team accomplished in generative AI. “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,” he wrote.

Aggarwal played a key role in AWS’s strategic push into generative AI, contributing significantly to the development of AI foundation models and AWS’s generative AI platform, Bedrock. He was also instrumental in the creation of Amazon Q, Amazon’s business-oriented generative AI assistant.

While he did not disclose specific details, Aggarwal hinted that he would be launching a new venture, signaling a return to his entrepreneurial roots.

Prior to joining AWS, Aggarwal had an extensive history in entrepreneurship and AI-driven analytics. In 2009, he founded Localytics, a mobile analytics and messaging platform that raised over $69 million in venture funding before being acquired by Upland BlueVenn in 2020. He left Localytics in 2017, well before the acquisition.

Aggarwal went on to co-found Demand Sage in 2018, an AI-driven sales analytics platform. The company successfully secured $3 million in venture funding before being acquired by Snap in April 2021. Following the acquisition, Aggarwal took on the role of Head of Product and Growth in Snap’s R&D group, a position he held until his move to AWS in 2022.

Aggarwal’s departure from AWS marks another chapter in his career, as he looks ahead to his next entrepreneurial endeavor. Given his track record of innovation and leadership in AI and analytics, the industry will undoubtedly be watching closely to see what he launches next.