Krishna Rao joins AI startup Anthropic as chief financial officer 

Indian American strategic finance leader Krishna Rao has joined artificial intelligence startup Anthropic as its chief financial officer and is expected to play a key role in shaping its financial strategy and operations for international expansion.

“With nearly 20 years of experience as a strategic finance leader for customer-centric, world-class brands and as an investor, Krishna will play a crucial role in shaping Anthropic’s financial strategy and operations as we continue to build on our strong enterprise momentum and advance our international expansion,” the company stated announcing his appointment May 21.

Rao joins Anthropic from Fanatics Commerce, where he served as CFO, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his previous roles. At Cedar, a healthcare payments and patient engagement platform, Rao led both the finance function and operational initiatives as the company’s CFO.

Prior to that, he served as Global Head of Corporate & Business Development and led Corporate and Operations FP&A at Airbnb, where he helped navigate the company through the Covid-19 pandemic and played a key role in raising over $10 billion in equity and debt capital, including Airbnb’s IPO and private financings.

Earlier in his career, Krishna spent time as a private equity investor at Blackstone and as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company.

With a JD from Yale Law School and an AB in economics from Harvard College, Rao brings a unique blend of financial acumen, strategic thinking, and operational expertise to Anthropic, the company stated.

“I am thrilled to join Anthropic at such a pivotal moment in the company’s journey,” said Rao. “Anthropic’s mission to build transformative AI systems that benefit humanity deeply resonates with me. I look forward to working with the exceptional team at Anthropic to build a strong financial foundation that will support the responsible development and deployment of our technology.”

“Krishna is a world-class financial leader with an impressive history of driving strategic growth and operational excellence at innovative, mission-driven companies,” said Daniela Amodei, co-founder and President of Anthropic.

“As we continue to grow our footprint and expand our impact, Krishna’s deep expertise in financial strategy and analysis, capital allocation, and scaling high-growth organizations will be essential. We’re thrilled to have him join our leadership team and help guide Anthropic through our next phase of growth.”