Jay Vijayan

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]

Jay Vijayan
Born
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Other namesJayaprakash Vijayan
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationUniversity of Madras (B.Sc., M.Sc.)
Occupation(s)Founder & CEO, Tekion Corp
Parent(s)K. Vijayan (Father)
V. Umadevi (Mother)

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]

He joined City Developments Limited, a real estate organization 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]

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]

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.[7][8] In 2020, Tekion Corp raised $150 million as part of its series C funding round led by private equity firm Advent International.[9][10] 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.[11][12]

Jay serves on the board of the HyreCar,[13] a P2P car sharing marketplace[14] and NIC Inc., a digital government service provider for federal and state governments of the United States.[15][16]

Jay Vijayan also sits on the advisory board at Sibros, an Over-the-Air (OTA) platform connected to vehicle systems.[17]

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.[18][19]

Jay has several patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).[20][21][22]

Personal life

Vijayan lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.[23]

Further reading

References
  1. Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". Mint.
  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. "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up".
  4. Ahmad, Samreen (21 October 2020). "Former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan's start-up Tekion joins unicorn club". Business Standard India.
  5. "HyreCar names former Tesla CIO Vijayan to board". Auto Remarketing. 29 April 2019.
  6. "HyreCar Appoints Former Tesla CIO to Board of Directors". Auto Rental News.
  7. Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". mint.
  8. "Longtime Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan has formed a stealth startup".
  9. Mathur, Nandita (21 October 2020). "Tekion joins the unicorn club". Mint.
  10. "Tekion turns unicorn with $150 million funding led by Advent International". The Economic Times.
  11. "Tekion raises $250 m in Series D". Business Line. 5 October 2021.
  12. "Tekion raises $250mn in Series D funding round; valuation nearly triples". Business Standard. 5 October 2021.
  13. "Joe Furnari's, HyreCar CEO: Best hiring practices for fast-growing startups (VB Live)". VentureBeat. 16 November 2019.
  14. "Jay Vijayan | Board Member | HyreCar". ir.hyrecar.com. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  15. "About NIC (EGOV) and eGovernment Solutions | NIC". www.egov.com. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. High, Peter (19 June 2018). "Former CIOs Of Tesla And The U.S. Government Join Board Of NIC". Forbes.
  17. Garsten, Ed (19 July 2021). "Tesla Ties Leads To German Solar Electric Car Company Choosing Sibros Connectivity Platform". Forbes.
  18. "Jay Vijayan: TiECon Midwest 2016". archive.tiecondetroit.org.
  19. Sharma, Umesh (11 April 2022). "Jay Vijayan – The Man Who Brings Revolution To Tesla's". The Unheard Stories.
  20. "Vijayan; Jayaprakash Patent Filings". uspto.report.
  21. "3d Vehicle Model Data Capturing and Retrieving for Vehicle Inspection, Service and Maintenance". FreePatentsOnline. 24 December 2020.
  22. "Patents Assigned to TEKION CORP - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com.
  23. PK, Jayadevan. "Meet Jayaprakash Vijayan - The man who keeps Tesla charged up". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
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