{"slug": "2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar", "title": "$2.75B AI Startup Hightouch Poaches Google’s Agency Whisperer Jitendra Kumar", "summary": "Hightouch, a customer-data-platform-turned-agentic-marketing-system that raised $150 million in a Series D in April and is valued at $2.75 billion, has hired Jitendra Kumar, a 20-year Google veteran who most recently led U.S. agency partnerships for Google Customer Solutions, as its first head of commercial for advertising. Kumar will develop partnerships with major agencies and brands to apply data and AI capabilities across media workflows.", "body_md": "Hightouch, the customer-data-platform-turned-agentic-marketing-system that in April [closed a $150 million Series D](https://www.adweek.com/dealroom/hightouch-raised-322-million-across-six-rounds-heres-how-the-company-skyrocketed-to-a-275-billion-valuation/), is bringing on Google’s agency heavyweight Jitendra Kumar to make inroads with the industry’s biggest agencies, brands, and tech partners.\n\nKumar is a 20-year Google veteran; most recently, he oversaw U.S. agency partnerships for Google Customer Solutions. Now, as Hightouch’s first head of commercial for advertising, Kumar will develop and manage partnerships with big agencies and brands, and help them apply data and AI capabilities across their media workflows.\n\nThe appointment arrives at a moment of high momentum for the nascent company, which emerged from the startup incubator Y Combinator in 2018.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar", "canonical_source": "https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/275b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar/", "published_at": "2026-08-25 07:36:07+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-25 11:44:16.755574+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products", "ai-startups", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Hightouch", "Jitendra Kumar", "Google", "Google Customer Solutions", "Y Combinator"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/2-75b-ai-startup-hightouch-poaches-googles-agency-whisperer-jitendra-kumar.jsonld"}}