Caesar Sengupta, head of Google’s next billion users, resigns

Cesar Sengupta, who is spearheading Google’s efforts in payment and manufacturing products for the next generation of Internet users, has resigned after nearly 15 years in the American search giant.

Sengupta has been based in Singapore and recently served as Vice President and General Manager of Payments and the Next Billion Users initiative at Google. After starting at Google in 2006, he worked on digital payment services and ChromeOS.

“After 15 years with Google, Cesar Sengupta has made a personal decision to leave the company and start some entrepreneurship outside of Google,” the company said in a statement. “Through his time at Google, Caesar has initiated, built and played a leading role in initiatives such as ChromeOS, Next Billion Users and Google Pay. We are excited to see what he makes next and wish him all the best in his new journey. “

Sengupta said in a LinkedIn post on Monday that he had “decided to go and start a new mission.” He said he has not decided what he will start next, but he is “uncomfortably excited about the future.” His last day on Google is 30 April.

In 2015, he began spearheading the Next Billion Users initiative to bring in new users around the world. Between 2015 and 2020, more than 1.5 billion people started using the Internet for the first time. Sengupta wrote in a blogpost that by 2025 another billion is earmarked to include him online.

Read more: Google boosts digital payments in India

The executive led Google’s strategic investments in startups, including Indonesian ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek and India’s Glance and Dunzo.

“I’m very positive about Google’s future, but it’s time for me to see if I can ride without training wheels,” he wrote.