Chennai-Born Entrepreneur Builds Rs 438 Crore AI-Driven Pharma Business in America

Brushing aside the tough challenges of his childhood days in Chennai, Raj Babu went on to build a successful business in the United States. His father, who worked as a skilled labourer at the Integral Coach Factory, even sold a property to fund his education.

Years later, those sacrifices bore fruit when Raj found green pastures in the United States and turned entrepreneur.

Chennai-born Raj Babu, who rose from humble beginnings, went on to build a global business empire in the US (Photos: Special Arrangement)

In 2014, he set up Agilisium Consultancy LLC, a firm that started with data analytics but later transitioned into advanced AI-driven services for the life sciences industry. The company supports pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and researchers in their efforts to shorten drug discovery timelines and ensure that the right medicines reach the right patients.

From an initial team of just 20 employees, Agilisium has grown into a global organisation with nearly 1,000 staff spread across the US, India, Canada, and Costa Rica.


Headquartered in Los Angeles, with strong back-end operations in Chennai and Hyderabad, the company caters to some of the top names in the life sciences sector, including Amgen and Scripps Health.

Raj had invested USD 1 Million of his own money to start the business in the US. Half of this came from his own savings and the rest by mortgaging his home. Today, the company’s turnover has touched USD 50 million (about Rs 438 crore).

Agilisium works with all types of data — unstructured, semi-structured, and structured — and uses AI to help the life sciences and pharma industry drive innovation. Raj Babu says, “I made this shift because I wanted to add more value to the company. Today, innovation powered by AI is what makes a digital services company truly stand out.”

Raj Babu built the Agilisium from 20 employees to nearly 1,000 worldwide today

While the company’s customers are based in the US, its back-end services, innovation, and development labs are run from Chennai and Hyderabad. Agilisium’s revenue comes entirely from US clients, including Amgen and Scripps Health, though it also operates in locations like Atlanta, Chicago, New Jersey, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

The company has narrowed its focus to two areas. The first is commercial work with pharma firms, hospitals, and doctors to ensure the right medicine is delivered to the right patient.

In the US, medicine cannot be prescribed directly to patients. Pharma companies must first educate doctors and caregivers, and then seek approval from the FDA. This is one of Agilisium’s focus areas — helping ensure the right medicines reach the right patients.

The second focus is drug discovery. Normally, research on a new drug can take up to 12 years. Agilisium’s AI tools help bring this down to about 8 years by giving scientists, doctors, and researchers the right technology support. The process becomes faster, fully digital, more affordable, and less risky, with early problems identified in advance.

Raj compares it to an operating theatre: “The surgeon performs the operation, but he is supported by nurses and junior doctors. In the same way, our technology supports the scientists and researchers in their work.”

Agilisium also builds accelerators that save enormous time. For example, pharma companies in the US must report to the FDA every quarter about their medicines and side effects across different countries. Earlier, going through these reports took weeks. Now, Agilisium’s AI agents can read and combine all this information into one report within 20–30 hours.

A token of gratitude: Agilisium gifted SUVs to loyal employees in recognition of their commitment and contribution

Agilisium usually begins with a pilot project based on its R&D, testing it in one organisation before full-scale implementation. To build its network, Agilisium uses podcasts, its website, and industry events, but according to Raj, nothing works better than personal references and word of mouth.

Their customers are mainly pharmaceutical firms that deal in prescription drugs. Many of them work in oncology, while others focus on heart diseases, rare conditions, and medical devices.

Explaining the company’s unusual name, Raj says, “I was inspired by the word Agile. It sounded right but was too common to register. In 2000, I saw a Sci-Fi film called Elysium. I combined Agile and Elysium to create the name Agilisium.”

Having risen from humble beginnings, Raj values loyalty. The company recently gifted SUVs to long-serving employees. “We have always believed our people are our biggest strength,” he says.

“Gestures like these do more than just reward performance; they deeply energise our culture. When employees see their commitment being acknowledged in a meaningful way, it boosts morale, builds emotional connection with the company, and inspires others to go the extra mile."

Going back to his humble roots, Raj, 51, was born and raised in Chennai. His father worked as a skilled labourer at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF). Raj studied at ICF Silver Jubilee School, which was started to mark ICF’s silver jubilee in 1992.

Later, he joined SRM College in Chennai for a BE in Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 1996. Looking back, Raj recalls with a smile, “I always wanted to do business. My father did construction work on the side, so I thought if I dropped out of 10th standard, he would let me join him. But it didn’t work out that way.”

After finishing college, Raj began his career at the Baroda refinery of Indian Oil Corporation with a salary of Rs 12,000 per month. A year later, he moved to OBSE Ltd as a Business Intelligence developer. In 1998, he got married. By 1999, he had moved to the US after applying to a recruiter’s job posting.

He worked in the US from 1999 to 2013, eventually becoming Vice President – Business Intelligence, Data and Analytics. “The experience I gained during those years gave me the confidence to start my own data analytics company in 2014,” Raj says.

Raj Babu with his Agilisium team, the driving force behind the company’s growth in life sciences and AI innovation

When asked about his struggles in the US, Raj recalled the difficult years of 1999–2000. “The market had crashed badly. I had just got married in 1998, moved to the US, and we were expecting our first child when this happened. At the same time, my company had no project for me. And in the US, no project means no visa, and without a visa you cannot stay. I worked hard, found a project on my own, and gave it to my company so that they could continue my visa,” he said.

Another experience that still lingers in his memory was joining a firm without knowing its rules. “They had weekly tests to retain employees. In the first test, you needed 85% to pass. If you failed, you had to reattempt and score 95%. Otherwise, you were out and so was your visa. The pressure was enormous.”

Raj compared that anxiety to his college days, when he had 21 backlogs by his fourth year of engineering. “It haunted me for years because my father had sold his property for my education. Even until 10 years ago, I would wake up from dreams about those 21 backs in panic,” he said.

Reflecting on Agilisium’s revenue milestones, Raj says, “We achieved USD 2 million in revenue in the first year, USD 15 million by the fifth year, and closed the last financial year at USD 50 million.”

Raj Babu with employees in a moment of celebration

In his free time, Raj enjoys reading on geopolitics, geo-economy, technology, history, and astronomy, and also pursues pottery making as a hobby. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, son, and daughter. His wife manages the finance and accounts of Agilisium, while both children are also part of the company.

His advice to young entrepreneurs is simple: “There is a window of opportunity to take risks in your life, and the best time is right after college. Later, responsibilities grow and you begin to take only calculated risks. Don’t focus only on money - focus on the difference you want to make and the value you want to create.”