Amazon Web Services Names Sriram Santhanam Head of Startup Business for India

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the appointment of Sriram Santhanam as Head of Startup Business for India, reinforcing its commitment to deepening engagement with the country’s fast-growing startup ecosystem.

In this role, Sriram will drive AWS’s strategy for startups across India, with a focus on enabling innovation, accelerating cloud adoption, and strengthening collaboration with founders and venture-backed companies. His mandate includes guiding startups on architectural excellence, go-to-market enablement, and transforming ideas into commercially successful, long-term ventures.

With over 25 years of experience in B2B sales leadership, Sriram has worked across industries and business models. Over the past four years at AWS, he has led the expansion of the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) business, managing one of the largest portfolios and driving growth across horizontal and vertical SaaS businesses. His expertise in cloud transformation and SaaS innovation will be central to AWS’s efforts to advance startup engagement in India, helping companies navigate the complete lifecycle—from platform resilience and security to scaling GTM strategies.

India’s startup ecosystem is among the most dynamic in the world, home to more than 157,000 DPIIT-recognized startups and over 123 unicorns across diverse sectors, making it the third-largest globally. With cloud, AI, and SaaS-led innovations driving the next phase of digital growth, AWS is focused on empowering startups to scale faster, innovate at speed, and view AWS as a strategic partner in their journey.

This leadership appointment comes at a pivotal moment for India’s digital economy, as startups increasingly leverage cloud and AI to accelerate growth and unlock global competitiveness.