AWS generative AI exec leaves to launch startup

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.