AWS India names Sriram Santhanam head of startup Business

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday announced the appointment of Sriram Santhanam as head of its startup business for India. The move highlights AWS’s commitment to strengthening engagement with the country’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem.

In his new role, Santhanam will oversee AWS’s strategy for startups across India, with a focus on driving innovation, accelerating cloud adoption, and fostering collaboration with founders and venture-backed companies. His responsibilities will include guiding startups on architectural excellence, go-to-market enablement, and supporting the transformation of ideas into commercially viable, long-term ventures.

Santhanam brings more than 25 years of experience in business-to-business sales leadership across diverse industries and business models. Over the past four years at AWS, he led the expansion of the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) business, managing one of the largest portfolios and driving growth across both horizontal and vertical SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses. AWS said his expertise in cloud transformation and SaaS innovation will be central to advancing startup engagement in India, helping companies navigate the full lifecycle from platform resilience and security to scaling go-to-market strategies.

India’s startup ecosystem is among the most dynamic globally, with over 1,57,000 firms recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and more than 123 unicorns across multiple sectors, making it the third-largest ecosystem worldwide.

“With cloud, AI, and SaaS-led innovations driving the next phase of digital growth, AWS aims to empower startups to scale faster, innovate at speed, and leverage AWS as a strategic partner in their journey,” the release added.

Santhanam’s appointment comes at a time when Indian startups are increasingly leveraging cloud computing and AI to accelerate growth and enhance global competitiveness.