# Kannan Kothandaraman

> Kannan Kothandaraman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Selector AI, a Santa Clara-based AIOps and network observability platform that uses large language models, knowledge graphs, and causal reasoning to help Fortune 1000 enterprises detect, diagnose, and resolve infrastructure issues faster. Before founding Selector in 2019, Kannan spent nearly two decades at Juniper Networks - rising from senior software engineer to Vice President of Product Line Management - and before that at Cisco Systems. Selector has raised $104 million in total funding, including a $32M Series B in February 2026 at a valuation of $375 million, and counts Fortune 20 companies in manufacturing and healthcare among its customers.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Selector AI
- **Organizations:** Selector AI, Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS in Computer Science, Louisiana State University, MS in Computer Science, Texas A&M University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Selector AI which has raised $104M in total funding, Grew Selector to a $375M valuation with $32M Series B in February 2026, Achieved four consecutive years of ARR doubling at Selector AI

## Career timeline

- **1998** — Joined Cisco Systems as Software Engineer
- **2000** — Joined Juniper Networks as Senior Software Engineer; led development of M120, Juniper's first fully redundant edge routing platform
- **2006** — Promoted to Vice President of Product Line Management at Juniper Networks, overseeing OS & software, edge/data center routing, and NFV
- **2019** — Left Juniper Networks after 19 years and co-founded Selector AI with Nitin Kumar
- **2022** — Selector AI raised $28M Series A led by Two Bear Capital, SineWave Ventures, and Atlantic Bridge
- **2025** — Selector achieves fourth consecutive year of ARR doubling; cumulative ARR reaches 230% of 2024; added 3 Fortune 20 customers
- **2026-01** — Selector granted 8 foundational U.S. patents in causal reasoning, LLM training, and network intelligence
- **2026-02** — Selector raises $32M Series B led by AVP; total funding reaches $104M; valuation doubles to $375M

## Achievements

- Co-founded Selector AI which has raised $104M in total funding
- Grew Selector to a $375M valuation with $32M Series B in February 2026
- Achieved four consecutive years of ARR doubling at Selector AI
- Secured 80% of customer base from Fortune 1000 organizations, including 3 new Fortune 20 customers in 2025
- Led development of M120, Juniper's first fully redundant edge routing platform
- Served as VP of Product Line Management at Juniper Networks for 13+ years
- Received 8 foundational U.S. patents in AI-powered network intelligence (January 2026)
- Launched network-specific LLM trained on network operations data
- Made Selector available on both AWS Marketplace and Microsoft Azure Marketplace (December 2025)
- Won Business Intelligence Group AI Excellence Awards in Infrastructure and Operations category

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Selector launches AI-Powered Multi-Cloud Observability Solution
- **2026-02** — Selector raises $32M Series B at $375M valuation, led by AVP
- **2026-01** — USPTO grants Selector 8 foundational patents in causal reasoning and network intelligence
- **2025-12** — Selector platform listed on AWS Marketplace and Microsoft Azure Marketplace
- **2025-12** — Selector achieves fourth consecutive year of ARR doubling; new ARR reaches 370% of 2024 levels

## Links

- Website: https://selector.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kannankothandaraman/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/selectorai
- YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a2VdGqzxPwA

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kannan-kothandaraman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-26