Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter, has reportedly secured $30 million in funding for his new startup, which focuses on the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
According to a news report by The Information, Agrawal was ousted by Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter (now known as X), in late 2022. Despite this setback, Agrawal has managed to attract investment for his AI venture.
Khosla Ventures, led by Vinod Khosla, a notable supporter of OpenAI, is investing in a startup founded by Agrawal. While the investment details have not been made public, the report revealed that Index Ventures and First Round Capital are also participating in the funding.
The startup aims to develop software that will assist developers working with large language models, a category popularized by OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT.
Last year, Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde, who previously worked as a policy lead, along with other executives, won a legal victory and were awarded $1.1 million in legal fees from X Corp. This lawsuit was initiated by Elon Musk, who had taken over Twitter in a $44 billion acquisition.
The executive’s employment termination was announced in October 2022. According to recent reports, three executives who departed from Twitter were given an exit package worth approximately $90-100 million. Of the three, Agrawal received the largest payout, which amounted to about $40 million. This was mainly due to the vesting of his entire shareholdings following his termination.
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Leyla Colón