Bengaluru: Exotel has announced a series of key leadership appointments and elevations as the company sharpens its focus on scaling its position in the global AI-for-customer-service market following the acqui-hire of Dubverse’s core team.
The company has elevated Rohan Shanbagh to Chief Operating Officer (COO), appointed Sanjeeth R as Chief Product Officer (CPO) and Ananda Kumar as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), while Udit Agarwal has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Global Head of Partnerships & Marketing, and Sumithra Sivaramakrishnan elevated to Head of People & Culture.
The appointments come at a time when Exotel is expanding its AI-led customer experience capabilities. The company currently powers over 25 billion customer interactions annually, including more than 4 billion AI-driven conversations, across 7,000+ enterprises including Apollo 24|7, HDFC Securities, Future Generali, JSW, and MG Motor.
Commenting on the leadership restructuring, Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-Founder and CEO, Exotel, said, “Across our largest customers, AI is already operating at production scale in customer experience, handling millions of real interactions across voice and digital channels. The shift now is about making AI reliable, trusted, and seamlessly integrated into core business systems at scale, working in harmony with human teams.
As we move into this next phase of growth, this evolution in the industry is mirrored in how we are strengthening our leadership team, bringing in new capabilities and elevating internal leaders across finance, product, people, marketing, and customer experience.”
As COO, Rohan Shanbagh will oversee business operations with a focus on operating leverage, profitability, and execution efficiency as Exotel enters its next phase of growth.
Confirming his appointment, Shanbagh said, “We have built a stand-out company that truly puts the customer at the center of AI innovation. It is now imperative to achieve equal excellence in operating rhythm and showcase our leverage.”
Sanjeeth R rejoins Exotel as Chief Product Officer while continuing his entrepreneurial journey with Luru. He will lead the company’s AI-first platform strategy across Voice AI, CCaaS, and CPaaS solutions.
Confirming his appointment, Sanjeeth said, “Product management is being rewritten. The Product Managers who will win the next decade will ship, not just spec. Exotel is building the infrastructure for the agentic era and makes them work in Harmony. As an engineer and product leader, this is where I want to be.”
Ananda Kumar joins as CFO and will drive financial and operational transformation initiatives aligned with the company’s AI-led growth ambitions.
Speaking on the occasion, Ananda said, “AI is fundamentally reshaping how businesses operate and Exotel is at the cusp of this transformation, and I’m excited to be part of this journey.”
Meanwhile, Udit Agarwal, now SVP and Global Head of Partnerships & Marketing, will spearhead Exotel’s global ecosystem strategy and strategic alliances.
Speaking on his elevation, Udit Agarwal said, “Enterprise AI is moving from experimentation to operational reality, and Exotel has an opportunity to help define this shift through an AI-first CX platform grounded in enterprise scale, trust, and execution.”
Sumithra Sivaramakrishnan, elevated to Head of People & Culture, will focus on leadership development, organisational alignment, and strengthening the company’s people-first culture.
Sumithra said, “AI may change how companies build, but people will determine how companies scale, and at Exotel, we want to bring our #LikeAFriend philosophy inward by building strong leaders, high-trust teams, and a culture where people feel empowered to grow together.”
The announcement comes ahead of Exotel’s flagship event, EngageX, which will host more than 200 senior leaders from over 100 enterprises including Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Air India, Amazon AWS, Piramal Finance, Jio, Zepto, ICICI Lombard, and Birla Opus. The event will also feature what Exotel claims is India’s first live public demonstration of an agentic AI customer interaction powered by its telephony infrastructure and Anthropic’s Claude via MCP.
