The man behind Google's 'Next Billion Users' is leaving the company

Caesar Sengupta, head of Google's Next Billion Users initiative, has announced that he is leaving the company after nearly 15 years to start "a new journey."

In a statement sent to TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson said:

After 15 years with Google, Caesar Sengupta has made a personal decision to leave the company and start something entrepreneurial outside of Google. Through his time at Google, Caesar has played a key role in starting, building and leading initiatives such as ChromeOS, Next Billion Users and Google Pay. We are excited to see what he builds next and wish him the best in his new journey.

Under its Next Billion Users initiative, the search giant brought internet connectivity to hundreds of railway stations and public places across India and other developing markets, launched Google Pay in the Indian market, and introduced products like Android Go, Dotally, Kormo Jobs. Google Files, which is one of the best Android apps, was also developed as part of the Next Billion Users initiative. Additionally, Sengupta led Google's payments business in India, which has seen great success over the last three years.

Sengupta wrote in an email sent to his colleagues at Google:

To the many, many Googlers working in Africa, APAC, LATAM and MENA, it has been inspiring to hear your voices take more weight in the products Google builds. I know there is so much more work to do. But we are light years ahead of where we were just a short time ago. You've helped digitize your economies, made Google feel local and driven Google's investment into your countries to unprecedented levels.