Parag Agrawal, ex-Twitter CEO, bags $30 million for his AI start-up: Report
Parag Agrawal, who was sacked from Twitter in October 2022 when Musk took over, has now entered the AI race
Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who has been keeping a low profile after being sacked from Twitter (now X), has now entered the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race, it seems. News reports reveals that the Indian origin tech entrepreneur has now launched his own start-up.
According to a report in The Information, Agrawal has also raised about $30 million in funding for his AI start-up. And, one of the early backers for his start-up is Vinod Khosla-led Khosla Ventures but the funding has not been publicly disclosed, added the report.
Khosla Ventures in its website stated that “AI has the power to disrupt numerous economic models and change the way we lead our daily lives over the coming years ". And added that they invest in deep tech and invest where they can be "early, bold and impactful".
Other firms that reportedly took part in the deal were Index Ventures and First Round Capital. Agrawal's start-up is working on creating software for developers of large language models that has become sought after with the popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Large-sized exit packages
It was in October 2022 that Musk terminated the services of Agrawal, policy lead Viyaya Gadde and others when he took over X (formerly Twitter) for $ 40billion. Musk wanted to radically transform Twitter, encouraged free speech, and wanted to monetize via subscriptions etc., which seemed to clash with IITian Parag Agrawal’s “cautious approach”.
According to reports, Musk wanted a CEO who could aggressively translate his vision and he reportedly felt Agrawal lacked the necessary decisiveness and charisma. Both shared a frosty relationship with Musk hitting out at Agrawal through tweets and leaked messages. Finally, when Musk took over, Agrawal was shown the door.
Meanwhile, late last year, Agrawal, Gadde and other executives together won $1.1 million in legal fees from Musk-run X Corp. According to reports, Agrawal, Gadde and former Twitter chief financial officer Ned Segal received large-sized exit packages, with Agrawal slated to receive the largest payout at around $40 million.
