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Indian Express
a day ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal launches AI startup Parallel to build ‘web for machines'
When Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X) in 2022, Parag Agrawal abruptly stepped down from his position as CEO and left the company to pursue something new. Three years later, Agrawal is back with a new venture that is unsurprisingly focused on AI. Called Parallel Web Systems, Agrawal's new startup intends to build tools and infrastructure that enables AI systems to interact with the open web in real-time. This web-scale infrastructure has been built from the ground up specifically for AI agents to fetch, verify, and organise the information they present. 'AIs will use the web far more than humans ever have. As much as we might anthropomorphise AIs, they operate differently from humans on the web. […] At Parallel, we are building for the web's second user. We are creating systems and infrastructure for AIs to use the web effectively for completing complex tasks,' the company said in its announcement blog post. 'Agents are going to be the primary customers of the web going forward. They will use the web a lot more than humans ever have,' Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Parallel, said. Parallel's suite of products include low-level search tools and deep research APIs that deploy AI agents to complete hours of human work on the web in minutes. The company claimed that its deep research APIs can outperform leading AI models, including OpenAI's GPT-5, on benchmarks testing complex web search and research tasks. When evaluated on OpenAI's BrowseComp benchmark for accuracy in multi-hop reasoning and web navigation, Parallel's deep research APIs achieved 58 per cent accuracy while GPT-5 recorded 41 per cent accuracy. Human participants working with two-hour time limits achieved 25 per cent accuracy. On DeepResearch Bench, a benchmark test to measure the quality, depth, and rigor of long-form AI-generated research reports on complex topics across domains, Parallel secured 82 per cent win rate against a reference set, compared to a 66 per cent win rate by GPT-5. Parallel said it is able to achieve these results because its web-scale infrastructure has been built specifically for AI agents, with each layer of its stack, from crawl and index to ranking, engineered for 'how machines consume information, not how humans browse.' Several startups, public enterprises, and AI companies are already using Parallel's deep research APIs to execute 'millions of research tasks daily,' as per the company. 'Developers are building AI sales agents that research leads, coding agents that synthesize context from docs, and investment tools that find alpha in nice parts of the web and SEC filings. Insurance companies are automating claims with web-sourced verification,' it said. Parag Agrawal studied at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay before earning his PhD at Stanford University in the United States. He worked at Twitter (now X) for nearly ten years. Parallel Web Systems is Agrawal's first major project since his tenure at Twitter abruptly ended in 2022 following Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of the social media platform. The startup has raised approximately $30 million in funding so far. It is backed by prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists (VCs), including Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, and First Round Capital, The company said that its founding team includes engineers who 'previously built the infrastructure and markets that powered the human web' at Twitter, Google, Stripe, Airbnb, Chime, Waymo, and Kitty Hawk. In the days to come, Parallel said it will look to develop long-horizon AI agents that can complete the work of entire teams in hours, continuous monitoring systems that track the web for signals, event-driven architectures, SQL-style programmable queries over the web, and more.
News18
a day ago
- Business
- News18
Elon Musk Fired This Indian CEO In 2022, Now He's Back With $30 Million AI Startup
Ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal launched AI startup Parallel Web Systems which claims that its Ultra8x engine can outperform GPT-5 Nearly three years after being ousted from Twitter on the very day Elon Musk took control, former CEO Parag Agrawal has returned to the tech spotlight with a new venture in artificial intelligence. Agrawal founded Parallel Web Systems Inc, a Palo Alto–based startup that aims to transform the way AI systems conduct online research. Launched quietly in 2023, the company has already begun to draw attention from top investors. Backed by Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures, Parallel has raised close to $30 million in funding. The team currently consists of around 25 members working out of California's technology hub. At its core, Parallel is building a cloud-based platform designed to help AI agents search the internet, gather information, cross-check it, and verify its accuracy. According to a company blog post, the system is powered by eight different 'research engines". The fastest engine can compile results in under a minute, while the flagship engine, known as Ultra8x, is capable of conducting deep, half-hour research sessions. What has stunned industry watchers is Parallel's performance in independent benchmarks. The company claims Ultra8x outperformed OpenAI's GPT-5 by more than 10 percent on tests such as BrowseComp and DeepResearch Bench, metrics that measure how effectively systems can search, analyse, and contextualise information. In some cases, Parallel's engine reportedly even surpassed human researchers. Agrawal's new company is targeting a broad range of use cases. AI-powered coding assistants could use Parallel to pull real-time code snippets from GitHub, while retailers might deploy it to track rival product catalogs. Market analysts could automate the tedious task of compiling reviews and reports into spreadsheets. Developers, too, have the option to integrate Parallel's technology into their own products through three distinct APIs, one of which is optimised for chatbots requiring ultra-low latency. For Agrawal, who was once abruptly shown the door at Twitter, the move marks an ambitious comeback in the highly competitive AI race. With $30 million already in hand and claims of beating industry leaders at their own game, Parallel is now being closely watched as one of Silicon Valley's most intriguing new entrants in artificial intelligence. view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Ex-Twitter chief Parag Agrawal launches new $30M startup Parallel, betting on AI smarter than ChatGPT-5
Synopsis Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter, has returned with a new venture called Parallel Web Systems. Founded in 2023, the Palo Alto startup builds infrastructure for AI agents to conduct web research with greater accuracy and speed. Already backed by $30 million from firms including Khosla Ventures and Index Ventures, the platform claims to outperform OpenAI's GPT-5 in benchmark tests. Agrawal says he hopes Parallel, not Twitter, will define his career as he steps back into the Silicon Valley spotlight. Agencies Ex-Twitter chief Parag Agrawal launches Parallel, betting on AI smarter than GPT-5 Parag Agrawal, once at the helm of Twitter, is now leading Parallel Web Systems, an artificial intelligence startup that focuses on helping AI agents complete tasks on behalf of humans. The idea is to allow machines to gather, verify, and organise information directly from the move comes less than three years after his abrupt dismissal by Elon Musk, who sacked him and Twitter's leadership team immediately after taking over the company. Friends and colleagues urged Agrawal to take a break. He chose otherwise. 'I'm not a person that can enjoy the beach in that moment,' he told Bloomberg. Instead, he spent his days in Palo Alto coffee shops reading research papers, sketching ideas, and writing code on his said he had plenty of offers but most of them were unappealing. 'Clean up shit,' is how he described those roles. Having spent years building machine learning systems at Twitter, he was clear his next step would be in artificial intelligence. His timing was notable. Just a month after leaving Twitter, OpenAI released ChatGPT, which opened the floodgates for new AI ventures. By 2023, Agrawal had founded Parallel Web Systems and quietly assembled a 25-member team in Palo Alto. The company has already raised $30 million from investors including Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures. One of the early backers is Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist known for his bets on emerging Parallel's technology is being used by early adopters, which Agrawal describes as 'some of the fastest-growing AI companies.' The system is reportedly processing millions of research tasks each platform allows AI applications to search the public web in real time, verify the accuracy of what they find, and package results into clear responses. According to the company's official blog, the system includes eight 'research engines' designed for different fastest engine can deliver results in under a minute, while the most advanced, called Ultra8x, can spend half an hour digging for highly detailed answers. Parallel says Ultra8x has outperformed OpenAI's GPT-5 by more than 10 per cent in benchmarks such as BrowseComp and DeepResearch Bench.'It is the only AI system to outperform both humans and leading AI models like GPT-5 on the most rigorous benchmarks for deep web research,' the company says its services can support a range of industries. Coding assistants can pull snippets directly from GitHub. Retailers can track rivals' product catalogues. Market analysts can have consumer reviews organised into can access these tools through three different APIs, including a low-latency version built for career has already seen sharp turns. A former International Physics Olympiad gold medallist, he earned a PhD in computer science from Stanford before joining Twitter in 2011. Starting out on the advertising team, he climbed the ranks to become Chief Technology Officer under Jack Dorsey. He worked on core products like Twitter's ad technology and its algorithmic timeline, before being named CEO in 2022, he was still leading Twitter while locked in a legal battle with Musk over the $44 billion takeover bid. When Musk finally completed the purchase, his first move was to dismiss briefly considered an AI healthcare project, but kept coming back to what he saw as a pressing challenge: building AI agents that could reliably search and interpret the web.'I don't think Twitter defines me. If I do a good job, I'm hoping this company will define me,' he said of his new believes the future of AI lies in personal agents acting on behalf of users. 'You'll probably deploy 50 agents on your behalf to be on the internet,' he predicted. 'And that's going to happen soon, like next year,' he told Parallel Web Systems, he is betting on speed and accuracy to give him an edge in a competitive market, and perhaps a new definition of his career.
Hans India
4 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal Returns with $30M AI Startup 'Parallel' to Challenge GPT-5 in Web Research
Almost three years after being abruptly ousted from Twitter by Elon Musk, Parag Agrawal is making a high-profile comeback in Silicon Valley. This time, the former Twitter CEO is leading his own artificial intelligence venture — and it's already drawing attention for outperforming some of the biggest names in the field. Agrawal's new company, Parallel Web Systems Inc., founded in 2023, operates out of Palo Alto with a 25-person team. Backed by major investors such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures, Parallel has raised $30 million in funding. According to the company's blog post, its platform is already processing millions of research tasks daily for early adopters, including 'some of the fastest-growing AI companies,' as Agrawal describes them. At its core, Parallel offers agentic AI services that allow AI systems to pull real-time data directly from the public web. The platform doesn't just retrieve information — it verifies, organizes, and even grades the confidence level of its responses. In essence, it gives AI applications a built-in browser with advanced intelligence, enabling more accurate and reliable results. Parallel's technology features eight distinct 'research engines' tailored for different needs. The fastest engine delivers results in under a minute, while its most advanced, Ultra8x, can spend up to 30 minutes digging into highly detailed queries. The company claims Ultra8x has surpassed OpenAI's GPT-5 in independent benchmarks like BrowseComp and DeepResearch Bench by over 10%, making it 'the only AI system to outperform both humans and leading AI models like GPT-5 on the most rigorous benchmarks for deep web research.' The potential applications are wide-ranging. AI coding assistants can use Parallel to pull live snippets from GitHub, retailers can track competitors' product catalogs in real time, and market analysts can have customer reviews compiled into spreadsheets. Developers have access to three APIs, including a low-latency option optimized for chatbots. Agrawal's return to the tech scene comes after a turbulent 2022, when Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and immediately dismissed most of its top executives, including him. That move followed months of legal disputes over the takeover. Rather than taking a break, Agrawal dived back into research and development. He explored ideas ranging from AI healthcare to data-driven automation, but ultimately zeroed in on what he saw as a critical gap in the AI landscape — giving AI agents the ability to reliably locate and interpret information from the internet. Now, Parallel positions him back in the AI race, and perhaps indirectly, in competition with Musk. Agrawal sees the future of AI as one where multiple autonomous agents will work online simultaneously for individual users. 'You'll probably deploy 50 agents on your behalf to be on the internet,' he predicts. 'And that's going to happen soon, like next year,' he told Bloomberg. With speed, accuracy, and reliability as its edge, Parallel could become a defining player in the next phase of AI innovation.
India Today
4 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Fired by Elon Musk, ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is back in the game with new $30M AI company
Ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is back in headlines from Silicon Valley. Almost three years after being unceremoniously fired by Elon Musk on the very day he took over Twitter, the former CEO is back in the game and this time at the helm of his own artificial intelligence company. Agrawal has introduced his new startup, Parallel Web Systems Inc, a cloud platform designed for AI systems to help them conduct online founded Parallel in 2023 and has been quietly building a 25-person team in Palo Alto. Backed by big-name investors including Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures, the two-year-old company has already raised $30 million. According to the official blog post shared by the company, Parallel's technology is already handling millions of research tasks every day for early adopters, among them, what Agrawal describes as 'some of the fastest-growing AI companies.'So what will Parallel do?In simple terms, Agrawal's new AI platform lets AI applications tap into real-time data from the public web and put together that information directly into their responses. Think of it as giving AI access to a browser that not only fetches the right information, but also verifies it, organises it, and even grades its own confidence in the answer. According to the blog post, the system offers eight different 'research engines' with varying speeds and depth. The fastest can respond in under a minute, while the most advanced — Ultra8x — can spend up to 30 minutes digging for highly detailed information. Parallel says Ultra8x outperformed OpenAI's GPT-5 in independent benchmarks such as BrowseComp and DeepResearch Bench by more than 10 per cent. '(It is) the only AI system to outperform both humans and leading AI models like GPT-5 on the most rigorous benchmarks for deep web research,' notes the company. As for use cases, the company says its services are available for AI coding assistants to pull snippets directly from GitHub, help a retailers track a competitor's product catalogue, or enable a market analyst to have reviews neatly compiled into a spreadsheet. Developers can also integrate these capabilities using one of Parallel's three APIs, including a low-latency option tailored for courtroom drama to coding againInterestingly, Agrawal's return has been quiet yet impactful, following all the chaos of late 2022. That October, he was still leading Twitter after months of battling Musk in court. The fight was about Musk's on-again, off-again $44 billion takeover bid. When Musk finally closed the deal, his first move was to sack most of Twitter's leadership team, including after all the drama, instead of taking a break, Agrawal apparently jumped straight into sketching out ideas in coffee shops, reading research papers, and writing code. Early on, he reportedly considered an AI healthcare venture (via Bloomberg), but kept circling back to what Parag says is in urgent need: Giving AI agents the ability to reliably find and interpret information from the now, it seems he's indirectly back in competition with Musk, this time in the AI race, betting that with Parallel, accuracy and speed will be his winning edge. 'You'll probably deploy 50 agents on your behalf to be on the internet,' he predicts. 'And that's going to happen soon, like next year,' Agarwal told Bloomberg. - Ends
