Leadership change at Hightouch

Hightouch, an AI-powered data activation and Customer Data Platform (CDP) startup valued at $1.2 billion, has made a significant leadership hire by bringing on Jitendra Kumar from Google. Kumar, who was known internally at Google as the 'agency whisperer' for his deep relationships with major advertising agencies, joins Hightouch in a senior leadership capacity focused on expanding the company's footprint within the agency ecosystem. This move signals Hightouch's ambition to accelerate enterprise and agency adoption of its composable CDP and AI decisioning platform.

This hire is strategically significant for several reasons. Hightouch has been positioning itself as a next-generation alternative to legacy CDPs like Salesforce and Adobe by leveraging a composable architecture built on top of existing data warehouses. By recruiting someone with Kumar's agency relationships from Google, Hightouch is clearly targeting the agency holding groups — WPP, Publicis, IPG, Omnicom, and Dentsu — as key distribution and partnership channels. This reflects a broader industry trend where data activation and AI-driven audience platforms are competing directly with traditional CDPs and DSPs for agency budgets. It also underscores the ongoing talent migration from large platform companies like Google to well-funded AI startups, as the adtech ecosystem shifts toward warehouse-native and AI-first infrastructure.