Latest news with #GauravAggarwal
Forbes
25-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI Governance In Tax Technology: The New Mandate For Trust And Transparency
Gaurav Aggarwal, Senior Vice President at Onix, Global Lead, Data & AI Solutions Engineering. In this day and age of shifting regulation, the position of tax technology is no longer merely operational—instead, it's becoming more strategic. As GenAI integrates itself into fundamental business systems, leaders in tax are no longer merely dealing with automation but accountability. For indirect tax departments—too often the behind-the-scenes guardians of confidential financial information—AI adoption guarantees faster compliance, cleaner audits and more intelligent document workflows. But here's the catch: The smarter our systems get, the more explainable, ethical and observable they have to be. Because in tax, trust is truly the currency. The Stakes Are Different In Tax Think about a customer support chatbot providing a wrong product recommendation—it's irritating. But think about an AI program misidentifying tax burdens or neglecting to monitor jurisdictional levels. The consequences aren't merely technical—they're legal. Taxing mistakes can lead to penalties, regulatory probes or, even worse, loss of stakeholders' trust. According to Thomson Reuters' "2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report", over 70% of tax professionals support the use GenAI, yet many lack the policies to govern its responsible use. That's why tax tech leaders require more than automation—they require assurance. They need not only to respond to what decisions were taken but also understand how and why GenAI solutions made them. This change—from performance-first to governance-first—cannot be avoided. It's the cornerstone of accountable AI in a trust-sensitive environment. From 'Black Box' To Boardroom-Ready Transparency We've all heard the analogy: AI should no longer be a 'black box.' But in tax, that's not a metaphor—it's a board-level mandate. For example, if an AI model recommends a different VAT treatment for a transaction in the EU versus Asia-Pacific, compliance officers need clarity on the inputs, decision path and data models that led there. That's where explainable AI (XAI) and observability come in. According to a McKinsey 2024 global survey, 78% of organizations now use GenAI for at least one business function, yet concerns around explainability and risk remain top priorities for leaders. By inserting logs, decision trees, input-output tracing and confidence scores, companies take the first steps toward what I refer to as a "glass box" strategy—where AI isn't only auditable but intelligible. In business segments regulated by trust and oversight, that isn't a best practice—it's a business necessity. As Gartner highlights, embedding explainability into enterprise AI systems is now considered a foundational governance requirement, especially in highly regulated fields like finance and tax. Governance In Action: Five AI Mandates For Tax Leaders Here are five practical steps companies have to undertake to enable GenAI ethically and securely across their tax stack: GenAI may analyze gigantic data volumes—but context is still relevant. Tax professionals need to stay in the know to approve AI suggestions, identify edge cases and introduce judgment into decision making. AI is meant to support, not supplant, the domain expert. Consider an "AI-augmented tax strategy," where humans define the ethical compass and GenAI provides guidance through complexity. Even in taxation, bias can insinuate itself—particularly when models are trained on old rules or limited geographies. Leaders should query vendors: • What did the model get trained on? • How is bias quantified and addressed? • Is the model inspected on a regular basis for fairness? It's not about jumping to bad faith. It's about making the tools work in the complex tax environments we play in. Clients aren't obligated to have a Ph.D. in AI. But they should be told where and how AI is impacting their filings or risk assessments. A large global tax firm I recently had the opportunity to advise started sending "AI contribution summaries" to clients—short, plain-language summaries of how GenAI had influenced results. The outcome? Increased trust, reduced escalations and improved client retention. Without explicit governance, GenAI utilization can quickly move into a legal gray area. Organizations must: • Establish ownership of AI-based tax suggestions. • Revamp employee policies and ethics education. • Define escalation routes when AI results appear to be in error. AI governance is not a back-office activity—it should be part of risk, legal and operations discussions from the beginning. Before deploying GenAI in core tax functions, pilot it in sandbox environments. Employ synthetic data. Emulate edge cases. Conduct parallel analyses. One CFO I counseled insisted on a "no production without sandbox" policy in finance tech. Within three months, it avoided two high-priced compliance mistakes and ensured AI models were honed before going live. Closing Thought: Redefining Trust In The Age Of Intelligent Systems Over the next five years, tax organizations will not only be embracing GenAI—they'll be measured by whether they do so responsibly. Will they go all in on automation without thinking or prioritize governance? Will they apply AI to reduce spending or build trust? The tax leaders who approach AI governance as a strength, not a box to check, will be positioned ahead—not just in adherence but in believability. Because in a field defined by scrutiny, how you use AI may matter more than whether you use it at all. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Entrepreneur
15-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
CRM Giant Taps YC-Backed Startup to Accelerate Next-gen AI platform
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. In a move that underscores its ambitious expansion into artificial intelligence, Salesforce is tapping into the expertise behind Truva AI, a Y Combinator-backed startup focused on automating sales workflows using intelligent agents. The Truva team will be joining Salesforce to accelerate its next-generation AI platform, Agentforce. The news was shared via LinkedIn by Truva AI co-founder and CEO Gaurav Aggarwal, who announced that the Truva team will be joining Salesforce. While the finer details haven't been disclosed, the move represents a significant milestone for the startup, which had gained considerable momentum in the AI-for-sales space over the past two years. Founded in 2022 as part of Y Combinator's Summer '22 batch, Truva aimed to create an "AI-powered sidekick" for sales teams. The platform was designed to automate tedious tasks like CRM data entry, email follow-ups, meeting notes, and other administrative burdens that often slow down revenue teams. The value proposition was simple: let salespeople focus on building relationships while AI handles the repetitive tasks. Early reports suggested that Truva's solution helped some teams boost productivity by as much as 25%. In 2024, Truva raised a $4 million seed round to further scale its solution. The founding team brought impressive technical and product credentials Aggarwal held previous roles at Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft, and was recognized on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. His co-founder, Anuja Verma, had nearly a decade of experience leading technical teams at Amazon. Their shared vision centered on streamlining complex workflows through intelligent automation. Over time, Truva's technology became increasingly compatible with Salesforce environments, making it especially appealing to enterprise customers. Salesforce's decision to bring in the Truva team is a strategic one. The Agentforce platform, announced in 2024, represents a bold leap forward for generative AI moving beyond chat and content creation to true task execution. Agentforce is built around autonomous agents capable of handling tasks for sales and support reps, including triaging tickets, logging notes, drafting emails, and more. Early pilot programs of Agentforce have shown strong results. In some instances, AI agents managed a significant portion of routine support queries, particularly during peak periods. These kinds of productivity gains explain why Salesforce is doubling down on generative AI across its product suite. With the Truva team now on board, Salesforce gains a skilled and agile group with real-world experience in building and deploying AI agents. The move also aligns with CEO Marc Benioff's broader vision. He's been clear that AI is central to the company's future, and Agentforce is a cornerstone of that strategy. Whether it's boosting sales productivity or automating customer support, the integration of AI agents into enterprise workflows is accelerating fast. With the addition of Truva's team, Salesforce has taken yet another decisive step in leading that transformation. One thing is clear: the age of autonomous agents isn't on its way; it's already here.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
From Back Office To Brain Trust: Why GCCs Need To Become AI Innovation Engines
Gaurav Aggarwal, Senior Vice President at Onix, Global Lead, Data & AI Solutions Engineering. India's global capability centers (GCCs) are light years from where they started life as low-cost delivery centers. They now occupy a position of leadership at the intersection of enterprise retransformation and technological rebirth. As the era of AI-born business speeds up, GCCs come to a critical juncture: Will they drive change to intelligence-driven innovation or be left in the dust? In order to survive this new world, GCCs will have to transform from execution machines to AI-fueled centers of innovation. The potential is not abstract—it's already taking shape, and India is particularly well-placed to drive it. India's Strategic Advantage: Talent With Traction India's advantage isn't in quantities, but in quality. Indian GCCs now boast more than 160,000 product professionals. No longer are they passive appendages to global operations but serve as active co-creators of value. For example, look at RapidAI: It co-produced real-time stroke care technology from its India center. Or consider Mercari India, which was instrumental in pioneering mobile payments and digital asset platforms. These instances show a broader movement: India is no longer implementing innovation—it is pioneering it. Four Imperatives To Redefine GCCs To maximize AI, GCCs need to reinvent their setup, strategy and capabilities. Here's how the most advanced centers are redirecting: 1. Build capability tracks, not career rracks. Rather than vertical hierarchies, GCCs are enabling cross-disciplinary development in AI engineering, platform design and product strategy, fostering innovation through integrated teams. 2. Co-create IP with business units. GCCs are putting engineers and product leaders in business pods together to co-design roadmaps—not just implement them. This combination brings velocity, pertinence and ingenuity. 3. Institutionalize AI-first centers of excellence. At the forefront of GCCs are codifying their innovation frameworks with results-driven centers of excellence (CoEs) in generative AI, intelligent automation and cyber resilience. These are not think tanks—these are creators of measurable value. 4. Align KPIs with outcomes, not outputs. Legacy delivery metrics are being replaced by impact-based KPIs—like AI model deployment rate, product velocity and innovation cycles with business outcomes. The AI-First Operating Playbook GCCs at the forefront of this transformation are adopting a systematic, AI-native model for transformation that entails: • AI-Native Development Environments: Integration of AI across all phases of product delivery from development to test and deployment speeds up and streamlines. • Data As A Product: GCCs are shifting focus from data management to generating monetizable insights-as-a-service through strong governance. • Adaptive Applications: Static platforms are giving way to smart systems that tailor experiences and adapt based on user behavior. Services-as-software are being redesigned as modular, reusable AI building blocks that scale effectively across functions. • Responsible AI Governance: Ethical AI practices, performance dashboards and business-aligned impact metrics are now integrated into GCC operating frameworks from the ground up. While GCCs enjoy significant in-house momentum, many struggle at scale with AI solutions. Poor access to nascent technologies, toolchains and industry patterns is a common roadblock. Here's where specialist system integrators (SIs) play key collaborative partners—never to outsource but to speed things up. A hybrid GCC-SI model can enable businesses to combine profound internal knowledge with external execution speed and expert AI knowledge. Where GCCs Should Cooperate To accelerate impact, GCCs need to collaborate with specialist SIs in these strategic domains: • AI Model Development: For enterprise-level personalization and decision intelligence. • Cybersecurity And Risk: AI-driven threat monitoring for threats, fraud and compliance. • Cloud And MLOps: Scalable infrastructure for continuous AI delivery and monitoring. • Business Process Automation: Intelligent workflows in finance, HR and supply chain. • Industry-Specific AI Solutions: Industry-specific use cases in BFSI, healthcare, retail and more. • Data Ethics And Governance: Fairness, explainability and auditability. • Future-Proofing with Next-Gen AI Readiness: Understanding quantum and edge AI technologies for future-proofing. A Blueprint For Strategic Co-Ownership The future will not be for GCCs that are stuck in legacy models or attempt to scale AI alone. It will be for those that assume ownership of AI strategy and governance, with the ability to scale innovation quickly and responsibly with the help of trusted partners. India's GCCs are poised to lead this transformation, with the market projected to grow from $64.6 billion in FY24 to over $100 billion by FY30. The moment is now to double down on reinvention—because the GCCs that co-create the future will create the enterprises of tomorrow. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
VC firm Vivo Capital outlays $740m for biotech investment
Set against a backdrop of barren biotech investment, Vivo Capital has secured $740m to back preclinical and clinical-stage life science companies. The funds will be allocated in the latest cycle of the Vivo Opportunity Fund, an evergreen public pot that runs in three-year investment cycles. Unlike traditional funds with a fixed lifespan, evergreen investments occur over periodic intervals. US-based venture capital (VC) company Vivo Capital said the third cycle will follow the same strategy as the first and second, helping finance small- and mid-cap biotechnology and life science companies. According to the financial entity, the investments aim to 'capture value from breakthroughs and clinical milestones,' as per a 7 May press release. There are approximately $5.3bn in regulatory assets under management for Vivo Capital, with the business investing in 430 public and private companies globally since it was founded in 1996. The Vivo Opportunity Fund has already catalysed a plethora of medicine development via biotech investments in its first two cycles. Verona Pharmaceuticals, for example, won US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine) in June 2024. Ohtuvayre has been earmarked as 'transformative' for the COPD space due to its innovative mechanism of action and limited gastrointestinal side effects. Geron Corporation, Avadel Pharmaceuticals, and Soleno Therapeutics were other companies highlighted by Vivo Capital as gaining FDA approvals for therapies in recent years. In addition, there are the Vivo Capital-backed biotechs that were acquired by big pharma companies in recent years. The largest was for radiopharmaceutical specialist RayzeBio, scooped up by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for $4.1bn in 2023. Other deals namechecked by Vivo in the billion-dollar league include Novartis' acquisition of Chinook Therapeutics for $3.2bn in 2023, GSK's buyout of Sierra Oncology for $1.9bn in 2022, and Sanofi's takeover of Kadmon for $1.9bn in 2021. These signify that Vivo Capital has a knack for spotting biotechs with potential, with managing director Kevin Dai saying the firm 'looks for the best opportunities across the entire healthcare spectrum'. Dr Gaurav Aggarwal, also a managing director at Vivo Capital, said: 'Vivo has been investing in healthcare and life sciences for almost 30 years, demonstrating consistency and supporting innovation across market cycles.' The $740m secured by Vivo Capital comes during a lull in venture capital funding for the biotech scene. Cash has already been in short supply since the boom in 2020 and early 2021, though current macroeconomic pressures have accelerated the funding downturn. US President Donald Trump has also cut government-led funding schemes in the country, removing secondary investment mechanisms that many biotechs rely on. A report by GlobalData demonstrated that biopharma drug company venture financing witnessed a 20.2% downturn in Q1 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Funding only reached $6.5bn, shy of the $8.1bn invested in Q1 2024. Analysts state that this suggests a preference for investors to back later-stage companies with clinical data already on their books. 'Amid the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, venture capitalists are favouring opportunities with clearer routes to near-term revenue and market access over longer-horizon development risks,' said Alison Labya, business fundamentals pharma analyst at GlobalData. GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology. "VC firm Vivo Capital outlays $740m for biotech investment" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Vivo Capital Closes Its Public Fund with Commitments of Over $740 Million
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vivo Capital ('Vivo' or 'the Firm'), a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on healthcare and life sciences, has closed the third cycle of its Vivo Opportunity Fund and its affiliates (the 'Public Fund') with over $740 million in commitments. The Public Fund invests in preclinical and clinical stage life sciences businesses that are developing or commercializing novel therapies for unmet medical needs. Vivo Opportunity Fund is an evergreen fund with three-year investment cycles. The third cycle of Vivo Opportunity Fund will follow the same strategy as its first and second cycles, leveraging Vivo's deep scientific and technical capabilities to invest in small- and mid-cap biotechnology and life sciences companies. The aim of these investments is to capture value from breakthroughs and clinical milestones. The first two cycles of Vivo Opportunity Fund have successfully invested in companies that went on to announce significant milestones, such as regulatory approvals, or that were subsequently acquired by global pharmaceutical companies. Recent examples include Verona Pharmaceuticals and its Ohtuvayre™ treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (approved by the FDA in 2024), Geron Corporation's drug RYTELO™ for low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (approved by the FDA in 2024), Avadel Pharmaceuticals and its Lumryz™ for narcolepsy (approved by the FDA in 2023) and, most recently, Soleno Therapeutics, which announced in March 2025 that its VYKAT™ XR treatment for Prader-Willi Syndrome has been approved for use by the FDA. This represents the first approved drug to treat the hallmark symptoms of this disease. Vivo-backed companies that were acquired by major pharmaceutical businesses include Sierra Oncology (acquired by GSK for $1.9 billion in 2022), Gracell Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca for $1.2 billion in 2023), RayzeBio, Inc. (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion in 2024), Chinook Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis for $3.2 billion in 2023) and Kadmon (acquired by Sanofi for $1.9 billion in 2021). Kevin Dai, Managing Director at Vivo Capital, said: 'As with its predecessors, the third cycle of the Vivo Opportunity Fund brings a venture capital mindset to the public markets, combining our long-term capital with our deep industry knowledge and experience to capture value for our investors. This strategy supports our approach of looking for the best opportunities across the entire healthcare spectrum.' Dr. Gaurav Aggarwal, Managing Partner at Vivo Capital, said: 'Vivo has been investing in healthcare and life sciences for almost 30 years, demonstrating consistency and supporting innovation across market cycles. We are extremely grateful to the entrepreneurs who enable the innovations we identify and for the support for Vivo Opportunity Fund that has been shown by our existing and new partners alike. We aim to repay this trust and confidence by consistently finding attractive opportunities across the public markets.' Since its founding in 1996, Vivo's mission has been to find and support the most promising healthcare companies globally to solve impactful healthcare issues. The Public Fund is part of the Firm's wide aperture approach to identifying healthcare opportunities across geographies, stages of development and sub-sectors, and complements the venture capital and growth equity/buyout strategies that comprise Vivo's multi-fund investment platform. About Vivo Capital Founded in 1996, Vivo Capital is a leading global healthcare investment firm with a diverse, multi-fund investment platform spanning venture capital, growth equity, buyout, and public equities. The Firm has approximately $5.3 billion in regulatory assets under management and has invested in over 430 public and private companies globally. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with additional offices in Asia, the Vivo team consists of more than 75 multi-disciplinary professionals. Vivo invests broadly in healthcare across multiple sub-sectors, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare services, with a focus on the largest healthcare markets globally.
