Indian-Origin Parag Agrawal, Fired by Elon Musk, Makes Comeback With ₹260 Crore AI Startup
Nidhi | Aug 19, 2025, 12:01 IST
Parag Agrawal and Elon Musk
( Image credit : ANI )
Indian-origin Parag Agrawal, who was fired by Elon Musk as Twitter CEO, makes a powerful comeback with Parallel Web Systems, a ₹260 crore AI startup. The company focuses on web intelligence and AI infrastructure, enabling businesses to automate research and analyze online data at scale, marking Agrawal’s bold return to Silicon Valley.
Parag Agrawal, the Indian-origin technologist who was dismissed by Elon Musk following his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022, has made a striking return to the tech world. The former Twitter CEO has launched Parallel Web Systems Inc., a Palo Alto-based startup focused on building infrastructure tools for artificial intelligence companies.
Founded in 2023, Parallel has already raised $30 million (approximately ₹260 crore) from prominent investors such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures, according to Bloomberg and TechCrunch. The startup’s mission is to support AI systems in conducting large-scale research across the web, addressing the growing demand for real-time, high-quality data in AI applications.
Agrawal began his career at Twitter as an engineer and rose to CEO in 2021. His tenure ended abruptly in late 2022 when Elon Musk restructured the company, now rebranded as X. After keeping a low profile for nearly a year, Agrawal’s return with Parallel marks a major shift—from leading a social media giant to building the digital backbone for AI research.
In a LinkedIn post, Agrawal described Parallel’s goal as enabling companies to leverage “web intelligence” for their products. He highlighted that the platform already powers millions of research tasks daily for startups and enterprises. One unnamed public company, he noted, uses Parallel’s system to automate workflows that were previously handled by humans, achieving results “exceeding human-level accuracy.”
The startup’s tools integrate directly with AI platforms and agents, allowing them to retrieve, organize, and analyze online information at scale. This capability is crucial as AI products like chatbots and virtual assistants increasingly rely on dynamic web data rather than static datasets.
For Agrawal, Parallel represents not just a business venture, but a comeback. With strong investor backing, early traction, and his technical reputation, Parallel is already attracting attention as one of Silicon Valley’s most ambitious AI bets in 2025.
Despite competition from other retrieval APIs and in-house AI solutions, the startup is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in the next generation of AI infrastructure.
A ₹260 Crore Bet on AI Infrastructure
Parag Agrawal, Image Credit: Times of India
From Twitter Engineer to AI Founder
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Parallel’s Focus on “Web Intelligence”
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The startup’s tools integrate directly with AI platforms and agents, allowing them to retrieve, organize, and analyze online information at scale. This capability is crucial as AI products like chatbots and virtual assistants increasingly rely on dynamic web data rather than static datasets.
A Comeback in Silicon Valley’s AI Race
Despite competition from other retrieval APIs and in-house AI solutions, the startup is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in the next generation of AI infrastructure.