Tag: Komli Media

  • Akshay Mathur’s new venture promises to turn platform ambition into cold, hard cash across Asia

    Akshay Mathur’s new venture promises to turn platform ambition into cold, hard cash across Asia

    MUMBAI: After two decades of making other people’s platforms profitable, Akshay Mathur has decided it’s time to build his own money-making machine. The adtech veteran has launched Unpromptd, a revenue infrastructure firm targeting digital platforms across Asia’s most lucrative—and complex—markets.

    Mathur, who recently departed his role as chief revenue officer at Tyroo after six years, believes platforms have had quite enough strategy presentations, thank you very much. What they need, he argues, is someone who can actually turn their grand ambitions into recurring revenue streams.

    “Platforms don’t need more strategy decks,” Mathur declared while announcing t the launch. “They need real execution, revenue accountability, and a partner who understands the complexity of scaling in markets like India, southeast Asia, and the Middle East.”

    The timing is hardly accidental. Asia’s digital advertising market has been on a tear, with platforms scrambling to monetise everything from social commerce to gaming. But many stumble when it comes to the nitty-gritty of revenue generation—precisely where Mathur sees opportunity.

    His pedigree suggests he knows whereof he speaks. At Komli Media, Mathur was part of the managing board that engineered a 10-fold jump in net profits before the company’s eventual acquisition by Dentsu Aegis Network in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. At Tyroo, he built monetisation partnerships with the likes of Meta, Twitter, Snapchat, Outbrain and Criteo, helping these global giants crack complex Asian markets.

    The 22-year industry veteran has witnessed first hand how the right operating model can unlock value that often sits tantalizingly out of reach. His new venture promises to be the bridge between platform potential and profit realisation.

    Unpromptd’s mission is straightforward: become the monetisation partner of choice for every digital platform serious about growth in Asia. It’s an ambitious target in a region where local nuance can make or break even the most sophisticated global strategies.

    Mathur’s approach combines hard-won experience with what he calls “precision execution”—a recognition that Asia’s next growth wave will belong to those who move first and move smart. With platforms increasingly desperate to prove their business models beyond user acquisition, Unpromptd arrives at a moment when such expertise commands premium prices.

    The venture launches from Gurugram, positioning itself at the heart of India’s digital economy while eyeing expansion across the broader Asian market. For platforms tired of beautiful presentations that fail to move the revenue needle, Mathur’s promise of accountability over aspiration may prove irresistible.

    Whether Unpromptd can deliver on its bold promises remains to be seen. But with Asian digital advertising spend continuing its relentless march upward, the demand for Mathur’s particular brand of monetisation magic has never been stronger.

  • Mindshare Fulcrum appoints Bharat Sethi as principal partner – programmatic

    Mindshare Fulcrum appoints Bharat Sethi as principal partner – programmatic

    MUMBAI: Digital marketing professional  Bharat Sethi has joined Mindshare Fulcrum as principal partner – programmatic, bringing over 15 years of industry experience to the role.

    Sethi, who previously served as head of media at Tatvic, boasts an impressive career spanning major tech firms including Google and Yahoo. During his five-year tenure at Google, he developed expertise in data analysis, digital strategy and software as a service (SaaS).

    His appointment comes as Mindshare continues to strengthen its programmatic advertising capabilities across video, display and connected TV platforms.

    Prior to Google, Sethi worked at Cognizant as an account manager for Doubleclick India. His earlier roles include optimisation strategist at Yahoo and account manager at Komli Media, where he managed performance and re-marketing campaigns across India and southeast Asia.

    Sethi holds an MBA in information technology/finance from SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and a BE in computer science from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology.

  • SVG & Komli merge biz to form indie mobile marketing platform

    SVG & Komli merge biz to form indie mobile marketing platform

    MUMBAI: Digital media platform SVG Media has merged its operations with Komli Media’s India business and global brand rights to create one of the largest mobile marketing company, with a combined share of 60 per cent of digital ad-tech spends in India, and a reach of over 150 million Indian Internet users across all screens.

     

    Under the terms of the deal, Komli India will function independently alongside the existing SVG Media group businesses: Tyroo Technologies, DGM, and SeventyNine; while SVG Media will serve as an umbrella company.

    SVG Media through its operating brands will now have operations in India, Indonesia, Middle East, Singapore, Japan, Beijing and Australia.

     

    As a combined entity, the new SVG Media group’s consolidated India revenues stand at over $50 million. Only Google and Facebook have more India revenues and reach than SVG Media after today’s announcement.

     

    RevX, the mobile re-marketing unit recently spun out of Komli Media expanding from India to global markets, will continue to operate as a standalone company that is unrelated to this merger.  

     

    SVG Media founder and CEO Manish Vij said, “At SVG Media, we are determined to deliver to our advertisers a comprehensive suite of digital marketing products. Our vision is to be the most valued digital marketing platform for the high growth Asian mobile commerce industry. With Komli’s addition, our advertisers will also get highest reach in social media. We are working hard to be the first billion dollar digital marketing platform from India.”

     

    Smile Group founder Harish Bahl added, “The Indian mobile advertising industry is expected to be valued at $3 billion by 2020. As per our estimate, SVG is now three times larger than its nearest competing mobile marketing platform in India. We are confident that the merger with Komli India will bolster the SVG platform to continue building and offering the best-in-the-industry media and technology infrastructure for its advertisers – owning the ability to deliver 100 million mobile-commerce transactions every year.”

     

    Komli Media founder and CEO Amar Goel said, “Joining hands with India’s largest digital marketing platform allows both of us to combine our best strengths to create unprecedented value for our customers. All of us at Komli India are excited to be a part of the SVG Media group and look forward to further consolidating our leadership in India.”

  • Komli Media raises $30 million to strengthen leadership position in Asia Pacific

    Komli Media raises $30 million to strengthen leadership position in Asia Pacific

    NEW DELHI: Komli Media, a digital media technology platform, recently announced that it has raised $30 million from new investor Peepul Capital.  

     

    Existing investors, Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated in the funding. The company has raised funds to further invest in its key technology platforms and to strengthen its presence through integrated go to market solutions across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

     

    “As digital advertising grows in a fast and fragmented manner, it has become critical for the industry to focus on delivering integrated solutions across social, mobile, display and video,” said Komli Media CEO Prashant Mehta. “We have already seen strong adoption of our integrated solution along with algorithmic trading. With the increased funding, we plan to deepen our focus on innovative technologies, such as real time bidding (RTB), to deliver significantly greater value to our customers.”  

     

    Komli Media has built market-leading technologies such as Remarketing on its proprietary ATOM platform that has scaled across regions by delivering strong ROI metrics in display, social and mobile. The company recently integrated ATOM into Facebook’s RTB (Real-Time-bidding) platform – Facebook Exchange (FBX), making it one of the first adoptees in the region.

     

    “We believe that India and southeast Asia are at an inflection point in embracing digital advertising. Komli is a leading player in these key markets and with its technology platform, wide product suite and exceptional leadership team, the company should consolidate its current position even further,” said Peepul Capital investment director Venkat Shankar.

     

    “Komli’s success story is demonstrated by a CAGR of 200 per cent achieved over the past three years driven by innovative platforms coupled with aggressive organic and inorganic investments.  With this round of funding, we expect to further capitalise on the massive market opportunity and also accelerate our growth,” said Komli Media CFO Rakesh Malani.

     

    Avendus Capital was the leading financial advisor to Komli Media on this transaction.

  • Komli Media restructures APAC team

    MUMBAI: Digital media technology network Komli Media has restructured its business teams to further accelerate growth and meet customers‘ needs.

    Komli Media India and North America managing director Gulshan Verma has been promoted to the role of Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and will be responsible for all of Komli‘s business P&L. This new CRO Organisation will consist of all the regional and business managing directors across Komli Media worldwide.
    Prior to this, Verma has served Komli Media for over two years as its Vice President and country head for India & North America.

    Komli Media co-founder of and Southeast Asia (SEA) managing director Akshay Garg will take on the new role heading strategy and business operations across Komli globally. Garg was earlier vice president, international, for nearly three years at Komli Media during which he led Komli‘s international growth and strategy across UK, Australia and SEA, successfully leading all our international acquisitions and growing the SEA business to being the largest independent media network in the region.

    Both will report to Komli Media CEO Prashant Mehta.

    The newly created CRO Organisation will focus on addressing the marketer‘s need for integrated media solutions including those leveraging Komli‘s proprietary ATOM real-time bidding and mobile platforms.

    The CRO Organisation will have several new additions. Mathew Ward has been promoted to Komli Media SEA while Pritesh Patel has been made Komli Media India & Middle East managing director. Matt Sutton has been promoted to Komli Engage and Play managing director. He will be responsible for Komli Media‘s Social and video solutions across all markets. Varsha Brajesh has been promoted to data & analytics director. All of them will join Komli Mobile vice president and managing director Amit Bhartiya and Komli Media Australia and New Zealand managing director Andrew Reid in the CRO Organisation.

    Mehta said, “I am delighted to announce the new CRO Organization and strategy and operations function at Komli Media. Consumer behavior is changing across desktop, mobile, social and video in our core markets and therefore the message from our customers is very clear – we need to have an integrated approach that enables our sales teams to cross-sell solutions. Addressing this immediate need, Komli Media created the CRO Organisation, responsible for maximizing revenues and margins across all regions and products. The need for a dedicated strategy, planning and business operations is equally key to Komli‘s ability to scale, improve alignment across units and sharpen focus on key strategic priorities. With the development of the CRO Organization and the Strategy function, we are well-poised to scale our business successfully across APAC.”

    Verma said, “Komli Media has grown by leaps and bounds through a combination of great technology, best publisher partners and a world-class team. I look forward to ensuring that we continue to successfully uphold our commitment towards clients across APAC.” Akshay Garg said, “Since its founding more than six years ago, Komli Media has experienced rapid growth to become the leading independent media network across the APAC region. In my new role, I‘m looking forward to optimizing our strategy, planning and operations functions to scale our business and increase market share across APAC.”

  • Komli Mobile and Yoose team up for ad sales partnership

    MUMBAI: Komli Mobile, a division of Komli Media, has entered into a sales partnership with global hyper-local mobile ad network Yoose.

    The partnership’s initial focus will be India and South East Asia and will strive to augment Komli’s existing mobile advertising services for brands and agencies with new hyper-local and rich media capabilities, powered by the Yoose network.

    The strategic tie up between Komli Mobile and Yoose provides an option for brands in the region looking to capture the dual benefits of reach and relevance in the mobile channel through targeted consumer engagement.

    The alignment with Yoose is another step towards furthering Komli’s vision to continually deliver across the digital display advertising spectrum for its clients and introduces the power of hyper-local in an accessible, measurable and effective way for advertisers.

    Komli Mobile VP Amit Bhartiya said, “As leaders within the digital media advertising space across India and South East Asia, our objective is to add a hyper-local offering into our mix that ensures setting best-practice standards for mobile geo-targeting and engagement, both for our clients and their consumers. We consider the Yoose partnership to be fundamentally important in achieving this and are confident of the significant value this will bring to advertisers across India and South East Asia.”

    Yoose CEO Christian Geissendoerfer said, “Our partnership with Komli can now realise the rapid growth of smartphone adoption and potential of scale across India and South East Asia through mobile geo-targeting and give advertisers the means of maximising those advantages with campaigns that drive measurable, commercial results. We look forward to contributing to the success of Komli’s digitally innovative clients as they launch their hyper-local mobile campaigns.”

  • Twitter partners with Komli Media

    Twitter partners with Komli Media

    MUMBAI: Digital media technology platform Komli Media has signed a partnership agreement with Twitter for Southeast Asia.

    The partnership aims to expand the availability of Twitter’s Promoted Products suite of advertising products to marketers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

    Under the partnership, Komli will manage all Southeast Asia sales of Twitter. It will also help develop the regional market for Twitter and its Promoted Products through education and training programs for agencies and advertisers.

    Komli Engage sales team specialising in Twitter’s advertising products will be offering advertising solutions including promoted tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends which are currently available to marketers in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Latin America.

    Twitter vice president of international revenue Shailesh Rao said, “We‘re really excited to be working with Komli as we enter into Southeast Asia, which is one of Twitter’s fastest-growing markets. We are seeing significant interest from marketers who want to use our Promoted Products to build their businesses and connect with consumers, and working with Komli, and its management team, gives Twitter a strong partner with a footprint throughout the region."

    Komli Media VP International and managing director – SEA Akshay Garg said, “We are really excited to partner with Twitter. Together, we will offer marketers new and relevant opportunities to engage audiences in SEA and drive brand value. Social media growth in this region is among the highest in the world, and Twitter is one of the most recognized and utilized platforms in our region.”

  • Komli Media makes three appointments

    MUMBAI: Komli Media, a digital media technology platform, has appointed Apurva Dalal as VP and head of engineering, Ashwin Puri as VP and head of global business development and Rahul Bhargava as VP and head of products.

    Dalal will be responsible for building and scaling the Komli Media‘s technology platforms. He will drive the company‘s overall engineering and research vision to bring “industry-leading” technology solutions to customers.

    Meanwhile, Bhargava is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of Komli products, including crafting the company‘s product strategy, defining the road map and executing the go-to market plans.

    Puri will be responsible for business development and strategic alliances for Komli Media globally, including publisher relationships, data and technology partnerships and M&A activity.

    Komli Media CEO Prashant Mehta said, “Komli Media is focused on creating innovative advertising solutions for customers across the digital spectrum. These three key additions underscore the investment we are making to support our fast-paced growth. Apurva, Rahul and Ashwin have consistently demonstrated their strengths in innovation leadership, superior execution and the ability to scale across markets and products in high-growth environments. I am really excited about adding this winning combination to our global leadership team and the added momentum it will bring to Komli.”

    Dalal joins Komli from Google where he established the enterprise cloud computing R&D center at Google Hyderabad. During his seven-year tenure, he also led software engineering teams for AdWords, data warehousing and developer infrastructure.

    Prior to Google, Dalal spent five years at eBay‘s Silicon Valley offices, leading software engineering efforts for the search and high
    performance computing divisions.

    Bhargava brings over 20 years of experience in engineering, product, and business management for technology-driven products. Most recently, Bhargava was VP/GM of digital payments at American Express. Prior to that, he had led the Global Merchant Solutions team at Paypal.

    Prior to joining Komli Media, Puri had spent over 12 years in the mobile and consumer space in the US and APAC in product and business development roles at Sprint, VeriSign and Vuclip.

  • Zynga partners with Komli Media

    Zynga partners with Komli Media

    Mumbai: Komli Media, a digital media technology platform, has partnered with provider of social game services Zynga.

    This partnership gives Komli exclusive rights to sell web display ad and video inventories on all games across the Zynga platform in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

    According to Zynga, Social Media is the one of the greatest touch point for marketers to reach out to their target audience. Social gaming has gained popularity in the recent times due to its ability to foster a spirit of competitiveness, fun and interaction, and Zynga brings to the table some of the most sought after games.

    Komli Media CEO Prashant Mehta said, “Zynga is the brand name that comes to your mind when you think of Social Gaming. With millions of monthly active users playing games with Zynga, a whole new category has been created. Zynga and Komli will now allow brands all over Asia to connect and engage with their community in a unique manner.”

    Zynga head of sales and distribution Adam Sussman said, “Komli Media has a strong sales presence across Asia Pacific, and is known for their solid relationships with marketing influencers. We are happy to partner exclusively with Komli Media, to present our offerings to marketers across the regions.”

  • Komli renews reseller agreement with Facebook

    MUMBAI: Media technology platform Komli Media, with operations across Asia Pacific, has renewed its reseller agreement with Facebook in India, making it the only authorised re-seller of Facebook premium inventory in India. This marks the fifth year of Komli‘s association with the social media networking platform.

    Komli Media said in a statement that this move will help it service its clients better and provide advertisers with better solutions on the exponentially growing social media platform.

    Komli Media VP and country head Gulshan Verma said, “Our association with Facebook goes back over four years and it gives us immense pride to continue to partner with them. Komli works with over 70 of the top 100 marketers in India and we work together with Facebook to educate the market about the potentials of social marketing.”

    Facebook APAC VP Erik Johnson added, “India is an important and dynamic market for us. Komli has been a great partner on the ground in India over the last few years, and I am looking forward to our continual partnership with them in educating marketers around the best practices of Facebook advertising and brand pages.”