Ex-Microsoft, Amazon execs join Indian voice tech startup Vernacular.ai

India-based software-as-a-service startup Vernacular.ai announced the appointment of former Microsoft executive Gangadhar Kodandaram as the company’s chief revenue officer and ex-Amazon employee Ankit Jain as vice president for product management.

Vernacular.ai’s co-founder, Sourabh Gupta / Vernacular.ai

Incorporated in 2016, Vernacular.ai is a voice tech firm with enterprise clients across banking, financial services and insurance, hospitality, food and beverage, and other industries.

Kodandaram previously worked with Microsoft for over seven years and headed the firm’s healthcare vertical. He is also an advisor for startups and serves as a director at Make-A-Wish foundation.

At Vernacular.ai, Kodandaram will be responsible for building the company’s sales team and executing on sales and marketing priorities. He will also spearhead global expansion plans into the Asia-pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the US.

“Voice tech is becoming an important weapon in the CX arsenal for business-to-customer organizations focused on delivering a great customer experience, and we are solving this very critical problem for our customers,” said Kodandaram.

Meanwhile, Jain is an alumnus from Amazon India’s early product team and brings in 10 years of experience in product management. He also co-founded inventory management firm SprintAI, which is backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator.

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Jain will lead a team of product managers and specialists to drive concept launches and develop the company’s product roadmap.

Besides the hiring of these two top-level execs, the company said it has grown its workforce by 4x in FY2020 and looks to grow its team further by 2x in 2021.