MxMIndia

Tag: Chirag Shah

  • Harish Bahl & Manish Vij exit SVG Media, sell stake to Dentsu Aegis Network which launches Columbus in India

    Win-win for Dentsu & Smile co-founders as…

    L-R: Chirag Shah, Deven Dharamdasani, Ashish Bhasin, Anurag Gupta and Ashwani Mehta

     

    By A Correspondent

    This news could be looked at from two ends. That the Dentsu Aegis Network has completed yet another acquisition and become really big in digital. Or fro the Smile Group point of view, where the co-promoters Harish Bahl and Manish Vij have hit the jackpot yet again after selling Quasar to WPP in 2008. According to some industry estimates, the deal size is in the region of Rs 750 crore.

    So let’s hear it from the DAN pov first:

    Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of SVG Media Private Limited, one of the largest independent digital agencies in India. SVG Media will join the network’s Asia Pacific digital marketingagency Columbus and will become SVGColumbus.

     

    Manish Vij (L) Harish Bahl (R)

    Dentsu Aegis Network claims to be currently Google’s largest search partner in India, and the addition of SVG Media will further strengthen the Group’s leading search position in the market. This acquisition will also support Columbus’expansion in Asia Pacific – now in nine markets across the region.

    SVG Media includes the flagship brands DGM, Komli and Seventynine. Founded in 2006, SVG Media comprises over 280 specialists across four major Indian cities Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. It offers diverse digital media competencies including online performance marketing, mobile app distribution, representations, social and web services through its flagship brands. The group has one of the largest client bases in the Indian digital media sector with over 700 monthly active advertiser campaigns locally, as well as international clients in Dubai, Indonesia and China.

    Anurag Gupta,CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, Chirag Shah,CEO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Deven Dharamdasani,COO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Akshay Mathur, Business Head of Komli, and Ashwani Mehta,Finance Controller,will join the SVG Columbus Managing Board, which will be chaired by Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India.

    Harish Bahl and Manish Vij, founder and co-founder of the Smile Group, will continue to focus on investments through the Smile Group and will no longer act as directors of SVG Media. It has also been agreed that the Smile Group will retain the TyrooTechlabs business.

    Said Ashish Bhasin,Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “India is a significant market with rapid growth potential in its mobile and performance marketing business, and Dentsu Aegis Network India has a strong track record in the search and performance space to deliver this. Given its capabilities in data led search, performance marketing and mobile,SVG Columbus is ideally positioned to capture the fragmented long tail publisher market in India using technology and data. As a Group we have leading position in digital in India, particularly in search and performance and this gives us a clear leadership position in this area. We will now have over 1,300 digital professionals, accounting for over 35% of our revenues, well ahead of our competitors.”

    On behalf of SVG Columbus management, Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus,,said: “We started out as a digital media group more than a decade ago, and for us to join forces with a clear market leader in digital, that is Dentsu Aegis Network, makes perfect sense. Their priority in placing digital at the forefront of their strategy and goals align perfectly with ours. We will continue to scale our offering in performance marketing and serving clients through the network and other agency networks. We are assured of their strong growth momentum, which will enable us to further enhance our scale as a business operationally and geographically. Their unique one P&L model also allows us to be part of that shared vision towards a digital world which will provide us with access to the latest industry technology and talent to deliver the best solutions for our clients.”

    Meanwhile, this is what Messrs Vij and Bahl have to say:

    Manish Vij Co-Founder Smile Group: “We built SVG Media with the philosophy of profitable growth and market leadership. This philosophy is not the most popular in digital industry but has been very gratifying for SVG Media founders and key leadership. We understand that media consumptions habits are changing rapidly therefore will now focus on building the TyrooTech business and other media incubations.”

    Harish Bahl, Founder at Smile Group:“At Smile we are proud to have continuously built successful JV partnerships or exits with large global firms as, Airbnb, Yahoo, WPP Digital, Scan Group-Africa etc. SVG’s market leadership and exit to DAN is another feather in the cap for Smile.  Our strategy of Investing, Building and JVs through one common platform, is uniquely attractive to global unicorns and entrepreneurs and has evolved over years of learnings.  We hope to share few more exciting announcements in 2017.”

     

  • The company currently reaches out to more than 85 million consumers ascross South-East Asia and India

    Komli Media expands in South-East Asia with an office in Indonesia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Komli Media announced that it is expanding operations in South-East Asia with the opening of an office in Jakarta, Indonesia. Komli Media has also partnered with Smartpipe, one of the leading real-time data broker for network operators, for its Indonesia operations.

     

    Direct integration to Smartpipe will allow Komli to deliver greater audience accuracy via Smartpipe’s unique and patent protected intelligent identification technology. Smartpipe will provide Komli with MNO (Mobile Network Operator) privacy compliant, deterministic behavioural data, allowing Komli’s in-app advertising clients to accurately target specific user segments aligned to their exact requirements.   “At a time when Indonesia is experiencing a significant increase in mobile advertising growth, we are excited by the opportunity to broker targetting advertising soutions for Komli with Smartpipe” said Chirag Shah, Business Head, Komli Media.

     

    Komli is a leading ad tech brand in South East Asia and has enjoyed a position of leadership in the regional markets for many years with strong equity among advertisers and publishers. Komli also appointed Udit Dave as head of its South East Asia operations based in Jakarta. The company further said that it will expand the team to 15 members in the next four months.

     

    The company will launch with two proprietary and successful ad tech products: appjacketTM PLUS and Product Listing Ads (PLA) in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand in the first stage. Malaysia, Vietnam and Phillippines launches will follow in the second stage.

     

    Speaking about the expansion, Chirag Shah, Business Head, Komli Media, said, “We see tremendous business opportunity for Komli Media in South East Asia, building on the strong brand equity that Komli enjoys in the region. Our expansion in Indonesia marks the beginning of the next phase in SVG’s journey towards becoming South East Asia’s number one digital and mobile marketing platform.”

     

    “We are also pleased to have a leader of the caliber of Udit Dave spearheading the South East Asia operations. His rich local experience and unmatched understanding of local markets is going to be an asset for Komli as we strengthen our local relationships towards serving our customers better. Udit’s priority will be to strengthen our on-ground teams and hire the best people to address the unique needs of local advertisers,” Chirag Shah added.

     

    The company currently reaches out to more than 85 million consumers ascross South-East Asia and India. According to a recent report by eMarketer Indonesia is the fastest growing market in terms of mobile ad ecomomy.

     

  • Seventynine is said to be one of the fastest growing mobile ad network in the country with Rich Media serving capability such as videos and HTML5

    Mobile ad network Seventynine to launch ‘unique’ Android product

    By A Correspondent

     

    Launched in July 2011, Seventynine, the mobile ad network, started commercial engagement in the market in April 2012 with a focus on rich media inventory especially videos to enrich user experience. Seventynine has clocked record growth serving 700mn ad requests within three months of operation.

     

    Currently, Seventynine is working with brands such as Microsoft, Lufthansa, Nokia, Opera Mini, ICICI bank, ICI Dulux, Tata Docomo, Nazara, Mcarbon, Techzone  and so on and is in talks with other large brands for similar association. The mobile ad network is focusing actively on building inventories across mobile applications and mobile web.

     

    In an email interaction with MxMIndia, Chirag Shah, Co-founder, Seventynine spoke about his company’s journey since July 2011, its break-even plans and so on. “The journey so far has been very exciting and full of challenges. We are focusing heavily on unique product development, platform and analytics. Since March 2012, we have hit the market and managed to get some amazing response. Mobile ad spends are growing at more than 100 per cent. Spend on content such as application is growing at more than 400 per cent growth rate.”

     

    “We are launching a unique product on android platform and we intend to share details on that in the next 10-15 days. This unique product will be our focus for 2012-13” he added.

     

    “Mobile phone and mobile internet users are growing rapidly and consumers are spending more time on mobile as compared to TV, newspaper and internet. We are actively focusing on innovative technology solutions to create the differentiation that will position us ahead of the curve.” added Deven Dharamdasani, Co-Founder, Seventynine.

     

    The team size of Seventynine is currently 15 but, the mobile ad network company will be hiring aggressively. “We intend to have a 50 member team by the end of this year” observed Mr Shah.

     

    Seventynine is said to be one of the fastest growing mobile ad network in the country with Rich Media serving capability such as videos and HTML5. It is working closely with The Times Group, Network 18, Reuters, Business Standard, Nimbuzz, Angry Bird, Talking Tom Cat and others and has tie-ups with leading exchanges across the world.