Haptik’s Aakrit Vaish Steps Down, Ahshad Jussawalla Takes Over As CEO

SUMMARY

Aakrit Vaish, cofounder of conversational AI platform Haptik, has stepped down as the CEO, handing over leadership to Ahshad Jussawalla

Founded in 2013 by Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, Haptik was acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019 for over INR 200 Cr

Vaish said that under Reliance’s umbrella, the company expanded from a $500,000 business to $35 Mn in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in just five years

Aakrit Vaish, cofounder of conversational AI platform Haptik, has stepped down as the CEO, handing over leadership to Ahshad Jussawalla.

Vaish shared the update in a post on X. “Last year, after more than a decade of building Haptik, I stepped down as CEO and handed over the reins to long time Haptikan Ahshad Jussawalla,” he said.

Founded in 2013 by Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, Haptik was acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019 for over INR 200 Cr. The Mumbai-based company provides its conversational AI platform to enterprises which let users do various tasks like travel bookings, place food delivery orders, among others. Its platform is used by the likes of Swiggy, Zepto, Paytm, among others.

Vaish said that under Reliance’s umbrella, the company expanded from a $500,000 business to $35 Mn in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in just five years, “while turning cash flow positive”.

“I have immense gratitude for everyone at Reliance, who partnered with a startup and helped turn it into a real company,” Vaish added.

He highlighted that the decision to appoint Jussawalla as CEO followed an extensive search, ultimately concluding that the best candidate was already within the company.

“Over this past year as incoming CEO, Ahshad has grown the business by 30% and successfully steered the company’s roadmap to build for the Agentic world. While I step away from day-to-day operations, I continue to serve on the Board and am excited for some big announcements in the near future,” Vaish said.

Before joining Heptik in 2021, Jussawalla was a business head at Wizly, Mobikon, and BookMyShow.

The development comes at a time when the use of agentic AI is growing worldwide. According to Deloitte, 25% of companies working in the GenAI space will test agentic AI by 2025 and this could rise to 50% by 2027.

Startups like Gallabox recently raised $3.5 Mn for agentic AI solutions, while Atomicwork secured $25 Mn to launch AI models.

Most recently, OpenAI also released its AI agent “Operator” in India.