Connect with us

MAM

KlugKlug clicks with new funding as it eyes 10x growth and global reach

Published

on

MUMBAI: From Klueless to Klug influencer intelligence just got sharper. Klugklug, the influencer marketing SaaS platform that’s already making noise across boardrooms and brand plans, has secured a fresh round of undisclosed funding. But this wasn’t just another cheque drop. The backers, a powerful mix of unicorn founders, ex-CXOs, ex-CMOs, and leading angel investors are joining not just as financiers but as co-pilots in Klugklug’s turbocharged growth ride.

The Delhi-headquartered startup is aiming to scale its operations by 10x over the next two years, with much of the acceleration already kicking in during the first quarter of 2025. Its expansion roadmap now includes India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as it sets sail into newer markets with a strong tailwind.

As part of its scale-up playbook, Klugklug has added some heavyweight marketing minds to its advisory panel: Lloyd Mathias (ex-HP, Pepsico), Amit Jain (Cardekho), Gaurav Agarwal (Tata 1Mg), and Indranil Chakraborty (Storyworks).

The influencer game is no longer a gut-feel gamble.
Klugklug’s software, powered by AI, parses and profiles over 300 million influencers across 150 plus countries and 160 plus languages, giving brands deep dives into audience demographics, engagement metrics, campaign ROI, and influencer authenticity. It promises 40 to 60 per cent efficiency gains in influencer-led marketing music to the ears of performance-obsessed CMOs.

“We’ve seen seasoned marketers achieve campaign wins from day one using Klugklug,” said CPO co-founder Vaibhav Gupta. “More and more CMOs are using data as the starting point not the afterthought in influencer planning.”

CPO co-founder and CEO Kalyan Kumar added: “The global influencer market is at an inflection point. There’s a growing demand for transparency, smart targeting, and measurable ROI. This round of funding will accelerate not just our global expansion, but also the tech that powers sharper decision-making.”

Currently, KlugKlug counts 200 plus Indian and global brands among its clients, cutting across categories like FMCG, D2C, electronics, health, beauty, lifestyle and e-commerce.

With influencer campaigns becoming more high-stakes and ROI-focussed, Klugklug’s mission is to replace mood boards with dashboards and add a little brain to the brawn of brand advocacy. And if this new cohort of investors and advisors is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that KlugKlug just became a smarter bet on the future of marketing.

MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

Published

on

MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.

The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.

The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.

Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.

Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.

For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.

More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.

The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.

Continue Reading

Brands

Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

Published

on

Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

Continue Reading

MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

Published

on

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 Indian Television Dot Com PVT LTD