The former CEO of Twitter is building an AI startup and has raised about $30 million for the venture, The Information reported.
Parag Agrawal has kept a low profile since he was ousted by Elon Musk.
But it appears he’s been working on a startup that creates software for LLM developers, The Information said, quoting unnamed sources.
The report said Khosla Ventures led the funding round, while venture capital firms Index Ventures and First Round Capital also played a role.
Agrawal was CEO of Twitter from November 2021 until October 2022, when he was fired by Musk.
Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, since renamed X, was finalized on October 27 following a series of dramatic series of events. Musk started buying Twitter stock in January 2022 and by April he became its biggest shareholder with a 9.2% stake.
That month Agrawal tweeted that Musk was joining the board after meeting with the Tesla CEO and former Twitter chair Bret Taylor. However, Agrawal soon backtracked and said Musk would no longer join the board after he tweeted “is Twitter dying?”
Twitter accepted Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in April, but by May he was trying to put the deal “on hold” until Twitter gave him more data about the number of bots on the platform.
In July Musk tried to pull the plug on the deal and sent a termination letter to Twitter, claiming it withheld or distorted data on the number of bots.
Twitter then sued Musk in July 2022 to force him to complete the deal, accusing him of “refusing to honor his obligations.” Musk countersued, claiming the company intentionally misled investors about its prospects.
By October 4, Musk’s lawyers sent Twitter a letter reviving the original offer. The deal finally completed on October 27 and soon after Musk fired Agrawal, along with former CFO Ned Segal and ex-chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.
Agrawal did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
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