Atul Jalan

Founder and CEO Algonomy (an ADA company)

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Atul Jalan is an Indian serial technology entrepreneur who founded Manthan in Bengaluru in 2003 on a conviction that was unfashionable at the time — that data science, not transaction processing, would become the centre of gravity in business computing. Manthan was his fourth venture, following three earlier exits. It spent two and a half years building its first commercial product before selling anything, took investment from Temasek among others, and eventually acquired the American personalisation company RichRelevance, with the combined business relaunching as Algonomy in January 2021 under Jalan as chief executive. Algonomy grew to serve more than 400 brands in over twenty countries with real-time AI decisioning across retail and consumer channels. In July 2026 the Singapore- and Malaysia-based data and AI company ADA completed its acquisition of Algonomy, folding it under the ADA brand. Alongside the businesses, Jalan writes: his 2019 book ‘Where Will Man Take Us?’ for Penguin Random House India argued that nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and genetics are jointly rewriting human love, morality and ethics, and it was certified a national bestseller by its publisher.

Career Highlights

• Founded three technology ventures before Manthan, all exited, including the software services company Netkraft and the early-1990s venture Microtrack.
• Founded Manthan in Bengaluru in 2003, his fourth venture, taking roughly two and a half years to develop and launch its first commercial product.
• Built Manthan into a Temasek-backed retail and consumer analytics business.
• Led Manthan’s acquisition of US personalisation company RichRelevance, completed 19 January 2021.
• Became chief executive of the rebranded combined company, Algonomy, with RichRelevance’s Sarath Jarugula as chief product officer.
• Grew Algonomy to more than 400 leading global brands across over twenty countries.
• Led Algonomy through its acquisition by ADA, completed 30 July 2026, creating a combined presence across 34 markets in Asia-Pacific, the United States, the Middle East and North Africa, and Europe.
• Published ‘Where Will Man Take Us? The Bold Story of the Man Technology is Creating’ with Penguin Random House India in April 2019; certified a national bestseller by the publisher.
• Named among India’s 10 Most Influential Analytics Leaders every year from 2015 to 2018.

Professional Journey

Jalan’s entrepreneurial career began in the early 1990s with Microtrack, and continued through Netkraft, a software services company, and a third venture that public sources do not name. All three were exited successfully. By 2003 he was living in London and had concluded that software services — India’s dominant technology export model — was not where he wanted to build next.

Manthan was the answer. Founded in Bengaluru in 2003, it was named for the Sanskrit word for deep churning or introspection, chosen to signal that the company’s product would go further than reporting. Jalan’s bet was that prescriptive analytics — telling a retailer what a shopper was most likely to buy, in real time, in the aisle or on the page — would matter more than describing what had already happened. The company took about two and a half years to bring its first commercial product to market, a long runway that reflected how early the thesis was. Manthan went on to serve retail, consumer goods and consumer-facing businesses internationally, and attracted investment from Temasek.

The transformational move came in 2021. Manthan acquired RichRelevance, the San Francisco personalisation company whose software powered product recommendations for large retailers, and the two were relaunched on 19 January 2021 under the new name Algonomy — a coinage from algorithm and economy. Jalan took the chief executive role of the combined business; RichRelevance’s chief executive, Sarath Jarugula, became chief product officer. The strategic logic was that Manthan’s analytics and RichRelevance’s real-time decisioning were two halves of one product: unify all customer data in a single platform, then act on it in the moment rather than reporting on it afterwards.

Algonomy grew that position to more than 400 brands across over twenty countries. In July 2026 ADA, a Singapore- and Malaysia-headquartered data and AI company with around 1,300 employees and 1,500 clients, completed its acquisition of the business. ADA’s stated rationale was closing the gap between data insight and fully agentic customer experiences, and the combined group spans 34 markets. Algonomy’s products, solutions and teams remain available to clients, but the business now trades under the ADA brand. In the announcement Jalan framed the shift as moving from an advisory posture to an active one — being able to help build rather than merely call the outcome.

Running in parallel with the companies is a second, more public career as a writer and science communicator. Jalan describes his central interest as the convergence of biology and technology and what it means for a species that is merging with its own creations. ‘Where Will Man Take Us?’ was published by Penguin Random House India in April 2019 and later certified a national bestseller by the publisher. He was recognised among India’s 10 Most Influential Analytics Leaders in each year from 2015 to 2018, and he continues to speak and write on emerging technology outside the commercial frame of his businesses.

Education

No education could be established for Atul Jalan from any source in this review. A Bloomberg executive profile summary records a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, but that claim is uncorroborated and is deliberately not asserted here.