Rohan Shanbhag named COO; Sanjeeth R as CPO, Ananda Kumar as CFO; Udit Agarwal promoted to SVP and Global Head of Partnerships & Marketing; Sumithra Sivaramakrishnan promoted to Head of People and Culture
Bengaluru, May 19, 2026–In a fast-follow to the acqui-hire of Dubverse’s core team, Exotel has yet again made significant new leadership appointments and elevations. The Company is orienting itself towards cementing its pole position in the $13 billion global AI-for-customer-service market, signalling a shift from AI as a support tool to AI as an operational backbone for CX. Presently, Exotel powers 25 billion+ customer interactions annually, including over 4 billion AI-driven conversations, for 7,000+ enterprises such as Apollo 24|7, HDFC Securities, Future Generali, JSW, and MG Motor. Crucially, these Executives bring decades of expertise in shaping companies in execution and operational transformation for new customer commitments and market readiness.
Leading these key new appointments is Rohan Shanbhag’s elevation to Chief Operating Officer (COO). Sanjeeth R rejoins Exotel as Chief Product Officer (CPO) while continuing his entrepreneurial journey with Luru, an all-in-one sales productivity workspace, and Ananda Kumar comes on board as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Udit Agarwal, who has steered Exotel’s marketing in the Company’s most crucial growth phase, has been appointed Senior Vice President and Global Head of Partnerships & Marketing. Sumithra Sivaramakrishnan has been elevated to Head of People & Culture, where she will lead Exotel’s people strategy and organisational development.
“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,” said Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-Founder and CEO, Exotel.
Rohan Shanbagh, elevated to COO, will lead Exotel’s business operations at a critical phase of growth. As the Company sharpens its focus towards market readiness, his mandate centers on building operating leverage, driving profitability while establishing strong execution rhythms across the Company.
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.”
As CPO, Sanjeeth R brings a strong track record in building and scaling product organizations. His leadership will be instrumental in advancing Exotel’s AI-first platform vision, integrating capabilities across Voice AI, CCaaS, and CPaaS into a cohesive, intelligent CX stack.,
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, bringing expertise in technology-led financial and operational transformations across industries. Experienced in building and scaling AI-driven ventures, he has strong perspectives on how AI can fundamentally reshape finance functions and business models.
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.”
Udit Agarwal, now SVP and Global Head of Partnerships & Marketing, will lead Exotel’s global ecosystem strategy. His role will center on building strategic alliances, strengthening market positioning, and driving demand across key geographies, as enterprises increasingly look for integrated, AI-led CX solutions.
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.”
As Head of People & Culture, Sumithra Sivaramakrishnan’s focus will be on strengthening leadership development, organisational alignment, and building a culture that can support speed, scale, and high-performance execution across teams.
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 came ahead of the company’s flagship event, EngageX, which will bring together over 200 senior leaders across 100+ enterprises including Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Air India, Amazon AWS, Piramal Finance, Jio, Zepto, ICICI Lombard, and Birla Opus to discuss how India’s enterprises are architecting AI-led customer experiences. A key highlight at the event will be India’s first live public demonstration of an agentic AI customer interaction, where an AI powered by Exotel’s telephony infrastructure and Anthropic’s Claude via MCP will autonomously conduct a real-time, unscripted phone conversation and complete a live transaction on stage.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Exotel is building the infrastructure backbone for the agentic AI era where customer experience is autonomously orchestrated and business outcomes are owned end-to-end.
Backed by A91 Partners, Blume Ventures and CX Partners, Exotel unifies Voice AI, CCaaS and CPaaS into a single, secure, enterprise-grade platform purpose-built for multilingual, voice-first and compliance-intensive markets like India. The platform is designed for population-scale deployment, enabling enterprises to move from fragmented CX systems to an intelligent, AI-native foundation.
Today, Exotel is trusted by 7,000+ enterprises and powers over 20 billion interactions annually across financial services, healthcare, commerce and public services. By embedding intelligence at the core, Exotel enables AI agents to move beyond scripted assistance by driving autonomous resolution, with operational efficiency and measurable business impact in real time across voice, messaging and digital channels. In a world where conversations are fast becoming decisions, Exotel ensures enterprises are ready. Exotel wins when you win.
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