Jay_Vijayan

Jay Vijayan

Jay Vijayan

Indian-American entrepreneur

Jay (Jayaprakash) Vijayan is a US-based entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, and investor. He is the founder and CEO of Tekion Corp, a SaaS company based in the United States of America. Prior to founding Tekion, he served as chief information officer (CIO) at Tesla Motors. He also worked for VMware and Oracle.[1]

Quick Facts Born, Other names ...

Early life and education

Jay was born in Chennai, into a Tamil family, to K. Vijayan and V. Umadevi. His father operated a computer science training and coaching institute in the city.[2][3] Jay completed his education at AVM Matriculation and Avichi Higher Secondary Schools. Subsequently, he pursued his higher studies at the University of Madras in Chennai, where he earned both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree.[4]

Career

Jay started his career at Bahwan CyberTek before moving to Singapore and finally to the US.[2] After a brief stint at Bahwan CyberTek, he joined City Developments Limited, a private company headquartered in Singapore, and also completed Oracle database certification programs.[2] He worked at Oracle in the US from 1999 to 2007 as a programmer and later a senior manager.[2]

In 2007, Jay moved to VMware, Inc., a California-based cloud computing and virtualization technology company, where he served as Senior Director from 2007 to 2012.[5][6] He led the application development of all business applications for VMware.[7][8] In 2012, VMware reported a revenue of $3.77 billion.[9][10]

From 2012 and 2016, Jay served as the CIO at Tesla Motors. In this role, he reported directly to Elon Musk, the CEO of the company. Jay and his team were responsible for managing Tesla's digital and information systems during that time.[2] He is credited with building Warp, Tesla's home-grown ERP system. It integrates e-commerce and back-end management software, designed to support Tesla's approach to selling and servicing cars.[11][12]

In early 2016, Jay left Tesla to found Tekion Corp, a SaaS company that operated in stealth mode up until late 2019. Tekion is a cloud technology company focused on the automobile retail industry.[13][14] In 2020, Tekion Corp raised $150 million as part of its series C funding round led by private equity firm Advent International.[15][16] In the year 2021, Tekion secured $250 million in a Series D financing round from Alkeon Capital and Durable Capital, resulting in a valuation of over $3.5 billion for the company.[17][18]

Car companies such as General Motors,[19] Hyundai Motors, Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi, Exor, the parent company of Stellantis, which owns Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Ram Trucks, as well as Ferrari, and BMWi Ventures have also invested in Tekion.[20][21]

Jay serves on the board of NIC Inc., a digital government service provider for federal and state governments of the United States.[22][23][24][25]

Jay Vijayan also sits on the advisory board at Sibros, an Over-the-Air (OTA) platform connected to vehicle systems.[26]

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Jay Vijayan received the Tamil American Pioneer – Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Engineering/Science from the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North American.[27][28]

Jay has several patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).[29][30][31]

In 2023, Jay was recognized as an Automotive News All-Star for Digital Retail by Automotive News.[32]

Personal life

Vijayan lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.[33]

Further reading

References

  1. [1]
    Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". Mint.
  2. [2]
    Manu, Balachandran (29 October 2020). "How Jay Vijayan—a Politician's Son, Geology Grad And Former Tesla Techie—built The World's Newest Unicorn". Forbes India.
  3. [3]
    "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up".
  4. [4]
    Ahmad, Samreen (21 October 2020). "Former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan's start-up Tekion joins unicorn club". Business Standard India.
  5. [5]
    "HyreCar names former Tesla CIO Vijayan to board". Auto Remarketing. 29 April 2019.
  6. [6]
    "HyreCar Appoints Former Tesla CIO to Board of Directors". Auto Rental News.
  7. [7]
    Loizos, Connie (22 October 2020). "This former Tesla CIO just raised $150 million more to pull car dealers into the 21st century". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  8. [8]
    Rogers, Bruce. "Ex Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan Builds Tekion To Improve Car Buying Experience". Forbes. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  9. [9]
    "VMware posts first billion dollar quarter". Edge Middle East.
  10. [10]
    PK, Jayadevan (20 November 2014). "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  11. [11]
    King, Rachael (4 April 2016). "Tesla Motors CIO Leaves to Launch Stealth Startup". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  12. [12]
    King, Rachael (15 May 2014). "At Tesla, Software Takes the Driver's Seat". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  13. [13]
    Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". mint.
  14. [14]
    "Longtime Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan has formed a stealth startup".
  15. [15]
    Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". Mint.
  16. [16]
    "Tekion turns unicorn with $150 million funding led by Advent International". The Economic Times.
  17. [17]
    "Tekion raises $250 m in Series D". Business Line. 5 October 2021.
  18. [18]
    "Tekion raises $250mn in Series D funding round; valuation nearly triples". Business Standard. 5 October 2021.
  19. [19]
    "GM to launch EV digital retail tool powered by Tekion". Automotive News.
  20. [20]
    Loizos, Connie (5 October 2021). "Tekion, the automotive retail platform headed by a former Tesla CIO, just tripled in value". TechCrunch. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  21. [21]
    "Former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan's Tekion turns a unicorn with $150 million funding". The Times of India. 22 October 2020. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  22. [22]
    "About NIC (EGOV) and eGovernment Solutions | NIC". www.egov.com. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  23. [23]
    High, Peter (19 June 2018). "Former CIOs Of Tesla And The U.S. Government Join Board Of NIC". Forbes.
  24. [24]
    "Joe Furnari's, HyreCar CEO: Best hiring practices for fast-growing startups (VB Live)". VentureBeat. 16 November 2019.
  25. [25]
    "Jay Vijayan | Board Member | HyreCar". ir.hyrecar.com. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  26. [26]
    Garsten, Ed (19 July 2021). "Tesla Ties Leads To German Solar Electric Car Company Choosing Sibros Connectivity Platform". Forbes.
  27. [27]
    "Jay Vijayan: TiECon Midwest 2016". archive.tiecondetroit.org.
  28. [28]
    Sharma, Umesh (11 April 2022). "Jay Vijayan – The Man Who Brings Revolution To Tesla's". The Unheard Stories.
  29. [29]
    "Vijayan; Jayaprakash Patent Filings". uspto.report.
  30. [30]
    "3d Vehicle Model Data Capturing and Retrieving for Vehicle Inspection, Service and Maintenance". FreePatentsOnline. 24 December 2020.
  31. [31]
    "Patents Assigned to TEKION CORP - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com.
  32. [32]
    "2023 Automotive News All Stars - Automotive News". Automotive News. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  33. [33]
    PK, Jayadevan. "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
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