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Komli Media Raises $6M For Asia Pacific Expansion

By Shrija Agrawal

  • 14 Jul 2010

Komli Media India Pvt. Ltd, an online ad network in India, has raised $6 million in commitment from existing investors Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson India, a senior official from the company told VCCircle. Helion Venture Partners has led the current round of investment, according to the official.

Komli Media claims that its digital media network represents more than 1,500 websites, including sites such as Facebook, Expedia and Bloomberg, reaching 30 million unique users across categories and regions.

The company received its Series ‘A’ funding of $7 million in 2008 led by Nexus India Capital, Helion Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The current round of investment does not have an external investor as opposed to typical follow on rounds of funding where a new investor comes in.

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The company called this round of funding as an "additional round of financing" rather than series B. Even though the company claimed it had interest from other investors, it chose to go with the existing investors.  

Prashant Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Komli Media, said,"We received a lot of interest from other investors also. The monies will be used primarily for our expansion in the Asia Pacific markets, investment in technology and boosting the sales team."

Mehta did not divulge details on the valuation, however, added that "there has been a significant appreciation in the valuation" from the last round. 

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Talking more on the road map for the company, Mehta said that they are looking at organic expansion in the Asia Pacific region with key territories of growth being - Singapore, Phillipines and Malaysia- the main english speaking markets.

"We believe that the Indian online advertising market is close to about $200 million and feel that the opportunity is the same for the Asia Pacific region. We will have on-the - ground business development teams in these countries," he said.

Komli Media recently acquired PostClick, Australia’s leading site representation firm, as it began expanding across Asia Pacific.

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The funding will also help the company to continue investments in its core businesses. It will also invest in bringing the next generation of video, mobile and brand measurement solutions to the market; seek to further its core performance optimisation platform to help improve ROI for marketers and increase yields for publishers; and bring more audience measurement solutions that will deliver greater data and insights to marketers and agencies.

“With India’s Internet user base growing over 50 million and increasing broadband penetration, we see an acceleration of growth in the digital advertising market. The largest brand advertisers in India are now demanding a much higher share of digital and social media in their overall marketing plans. We will continue to make India a top priority of our growth plans,” he adds.

Spinning Off Pubmatic

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Mehta added that Pubmatic, the company's subsidiary which is more catered towards the global markets is now a separate legal entity and bears no connection with Komli Media India Pvt. Ltd except that the company is floated by the same promoters led by Amar Goel.

"The target audience, the markets we cater to, the teams and the technology is different for both the companies and it just made sense to spin it off," Mehta said. Both the companies now have separate management teams and boards.

Pubmatic provides ad optimisation solutions to online publishers catering to the global markets. In 2009, Pubmatic raised Series B round of funding from the same set of investors, Helion Venture Partners, Nexus India Capital and DFJ.

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On Mobile & Trends In Online Advertising

"We want to be in all the niches across digital media - PC, mobile, videos. We will look at mobile a little more closely", Mehta added.

On what could be the game changing trends in the online advertising market, Mehta added,  "Social media is changing consumer behaviour and facebook is leading that change. While a few years back, it was essentially email which created a lot of buzz, most of the communication today happens on Facebook. Mobile will also play a siginifcant role in content consumption in near future."

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