Priya Lakshmi and Gaurav Arora

Priya Lakshmi
Head of Startups, ASEAN, Amazon Web Services

As the Head of Amazon Web Services’ Startup business across ASEAN, Priya Lakshmi leads a team committed to supporting the region’s most exciting startups, helping founders and entrepreneurs succeed on the journey from inception to IPO. 

Priya’s team helps startups leverage the latest technology to bring a great business idea to life, and scale it quickly and cost effectively. Having grown multiple businesses from the ground up, she is passionate about the innovation and wide-reaching impact that startups can achieve by building on AWS. Priya has particular expertise on topics like Amazon’s Culture of Innovation, hiring best practices, and AWS initiatives designed to support startups throughout their lifecycle. 

Priya’s career spans 20 years in the technology and IT industries, comprising sales and business development roles across India and Southeast Asia. Before joining AWS in 2015, she held positions with multinational technology companies working with a broad range of businesses across startups, small businesses, enterprises and more.

Priya holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration Strategy and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies.

Gaurav Arora
Director & Head of Startup Business, Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services

As the Director & Head of Amazon Web Services’ Startup business across Asia Pacific and Japan, Gaurav Arora leads a team committed to supporting the region’s most exciting startups, helping founders and entrepreneurs succeed on the journey from inception to IPO. 

Gaurav’s team helps startups leverage the latest technology to bring a great business idea to life, and scale it quickly and cost effectively. Gaurav is passionate about the innovation and wide-reaching impact that startups can achieve by building on AWS, and speaks regularly at key startup events on topics like emerging technology trends, Amazon’s Culture of Innovation, hiring best practices, and AWS initiatives designed to support startups throughout their lifecycle. 

With deep roots in the regional startup ecosystem, Gaurav and his extended team work closely with the leading venture capital (VC) firms, accelerators, and incubators, to support their portfolio companies as mentors and advisors at every stage from building the best technology solutions to leveraging the broader Amazon network to unlocking new go-to-market and expansion opportunities.

Before joining AWS in 2013, Gaurav gained international VC experience as an investor at Prime Ventures in the Netherlands. He has also held positions at multinational tech companies such as Intel, AMD, and Texas Instruments.

Gaurav holds an MBA in Strategy and Finance from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.