Prior to the funding winter, raising mind-boggling amounts from private investors was usually considered a surefire path to startup success. But when financing dried up, bootstrapping to build a successful, sustainable business became tricky for cash-guzzlers. Those who survived realised that the quality of holding out and evolving into an enduring business would be the success benchmark in the new normal.
Long before the exuberant funding years triggered by the pandemic-led FOMO and the brutal market corrections that followed, two engineering students proved that a strong product could overcome growth hurdles minus the VC dollars. Tejas Rathod and Kunal Kothari did not attend elite institutions (read IITs and IIMs). Neither were they connected to the old boys’ club (venture capitalists, per se). But during their college days itself, Tejas Rathod and Kunal Kothari transformed their college project into a content monetisation platform.
They were elated when the duo earned a $100 paycheque from Google for their initial work. But it set them thinking about a technology-driven business to navigate complex customer journeys better than any traditional tech solution. The year was 2017, and the portmanteau concept (a cocktail of martech and adtech, but more on that later), globally introduced by David Raab in 2015, was nascent in India.
Realising the limitations of traditional digital marketing was not adequate for businesses in a hyper digital-first era, Mobavenue pivoted to the all-new hybrid model. Customers expect a continuity of experience when connecting with brands via numerous digital channels. Hence, madtech combines martech’s individual reach and the massive datasets of adtech to ensure that advertisers can reach and cater to target customers across all possible platforms.
To ensure end-to-end offerings, the duo launched a programmatic advertising platform, essentially an automated way for selling and buying online ad space, so that brands can decide where, when and how to display their digital ad campaigns to top off their marketing efforts. Today, Mobavenue operates as a one-of-its-kind madtech agency, enabling brands to grow beyond walled gardens by guiding consumers through awareness, acquisition and retention.
In 2020, Rathod and Kothari met Ishank Joshi, a serial entrepreneur and thus, began a long-standing association among them. Soon Ishank joined as CEO and cofounder of Mobavenue, bringing his long-standing association with Kothari and Rathod to the forefront. He was tasked with driving the company’s growth strategy, market expansion and profitability.
Mobavenue caters to startups of all sizes, large enterprises, media agencies and ad publishers. Its key clientele includes HDFC Bank, PhonePe, Groww, Swiggy, Zepto, Nykaa, and Games 24×7.
It has executed more than 30K campaigns and expanded to a team of 150+. According to Joshi, the startup has a strong presence across travel, gaming, retail, BFSI and entertainment sectors.
With its operations spanning eight countries – India, UAE, the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia – and overseas offices in London, New York, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. Mobavenue wants to emerge as a global madtech powerhouse and feels confident of sustainable growth, given its track record.
How Mobavenue Navigates Its MadTech Journey To Empower Brands
Aware that martech and adtech (marketing tech and advertising tech, respectively) are interdisciplinary yet collaborative aspects of holistic branding to drive sales, Mobavenue has built a full-stack madtech pack in-house for comprehensive and connected operations. It required targeted hiring – picking and choosing talent who could wear multiple hats typical of a startup culture. Given its bootstrapping strategy, setting up a lean team was mandatory at the time.
Next came the pivot from a straightforward digital marketing agency to a madtech platform. For context, martech utilises first-party or consent data captured from owned media (CRMs, CDPs, email/website/app interactions and more) to create and manage personalised messages. Adtech, on the other hand, gathers third-party datasets (as permissible by law) and displays relevant campaigns on paid media like digital ads, paid searches and social networks.
Madtech is the convergence of both. Essentially, it is an amalgamation of the valuable customer insights retrieved from internal systems and data from external channels for more value-added engagement to attract target customers across all channels, locations and devices. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI-ML) are also incorporated in madtech for process automation, optimisation and better decision-making based on cutting-edge data analytics.
Consider this. A fashionista browses online for the latest fashion trends on mobile. As one explores, this activity sends a signal to advertisers (in this case, fashion brands) interested in showing highly relevant ads. Behind the scenes, these advertisers compete to display their ads by real-time bidding. The highest bidder wins the opportunity. Soon, one sees an ad within a given app offering a special discount. Intrigued, one clicks the ad, downloads the app, and makes a purchase. It is an excellent example of personalised mobile/app marketing and advertising technology, demonstrating how effective programmatic advertising is in identifying, reaching and acquiring new users (and later, retargeting them).
Initially, Mobavenue launched two products – SurgeX and ReSurgeX – to cover the entire funnel from awareness creation to acquisition, retargeting and retention. Here is how it works:
SurgeX: The AI and ML-powered demand-side platform (DSP) automates ad impression buying and selling and ensures that ads are placed in the best spots online. Essentially, brands/advertisers leverage the DSP to bid on ad space, while publishers list their inventories on its supply-side platform (SSP) on ad exchanges. Using data analytics, Mobavenue enables these ads to reach target audiences.
SurgeX employs advanced algorithms and predictive bidding tools to forecast ideal costs, manage ad spending and maximise return on ad spend (ROAS).
“Our ML algorithms are designed to adapt and evolve with the unique demands of each industry segment and continuously optimise campaign performances,” said Joshi.
Its real-time monitoring and tracking dashboards allow brands to assess their alignment with key performance indicators (KPIs) and enable data-driven decision-making for maximum impact.
ReSurgeX: Designed for customer re-engagement, ReSurgeX uses contextual and product-based ads to convert past visitors and retain lapsed users, driving higher conversions.
This was followed by the launch of AudX in 2023, PrsmX in early 2024 and now, the brand is set to launch GMP360 in 2025.
AudX: AudX is a consumer intelligence platform that collects and analyses customer data for AI-driven, personalised campaigns. With access to a database of over 500 million unique users in India, AudX helps brands define user cohorts in real-time.
PrsmX: The platform focuses on upper-funnel activities, enhancing brand awareness, engagement and uplift through a programmatic ecosystem that includes video, connected TV (CTV), OTT, audio, and retail media solutions.
GMP360: The company is set to launch the Growth Marketing Platform 360 (GMP360) in early 2025. This unified growth platform will integrate Mobavenue’s entire product suite, harnessing the power of AI and ML to streamline media and performance marketing operations. By incorporating advancements in generative AI, GMP360 aims to reduce time and costs while driving comprehensive growth across all marketing touchpoints.
Overcoming Growth Hurdles And Data Privacy Challenges
“Around five years ago, brands used to allocate 50-60% of their digital budgets to paid searches and social platforms. So, we needed to educate brands about the advantages of programmatic advertising [the kind of work Mobavenue does] as a transparent, data-driven, scalable and cost-effective solution. As the outcomes demonstrated its effectiveness, brands’ trust in us and programmatic advertising gradually grew,” said Joshi.
The founders also understood that a stellar product alone could not thrive in a market where awareness was limited. To bridge this gap, the leadership team started awareness campaigns to showcase the benefits of programmatic advertising (and madtech), resulting in a surge in brand interest and user engagement.
Mobavenue products are built to address the distinct challenges faced by specific industry verticals such as BFSI, ecommerce, fintech, gaming and D2C businesses. By analysing historical data, consumer behaviour and market trends, it has crafted strategies that resonate with target audiences and deliver measurable outcomes.
“Our deep sector knowledge enables us to create highly effective, industry-specific advertising campaigns that drive business growth and sharpen competitive edge,” said Joshi.
Interestingly, the startup’s decision to expand overseas is driven by analytics and precision.
“We enter a new market only after a meticulous, comprehensive analysis. We evaluate key metrics such as population size, mobile user penetration rates, internet usage levels and the scale of digital media expenditure,” the CEO added.
The Road Ahead For Mobavenue In A World Of People & Data
Over the next three years, Mobavenue aims to expand its global footprint by establishing offices across North and South America, the UK, the EU, East Asia and LATAM. This strategic expansion includes hiring local talent in these regions while retaining its core global operations teams in India, leveraging a cost-efficient model akin to software-as-a-service (SaaS).
“India will remain our technology and operations powerhouse as we expand globally,” said Joshi. Adding further, “we will continue investing in tier 2 cities like Surat, Pune, Hyderabad and Jaipur to build a world-class tech and operations workforce.”
Its expansion strategy aligns well with the emerging opportunities in programmatic advertising and the madtech sector. Globally, programmatic ad spend, a critical component of the madtech business, is estimated to reach $800 Bn by 2028 from an estimated $595 Bn in 2024. On the other hand, industry analysts predict that by 2027, stakeholders will invest $245 Bn annually in the madtech space, up from $100 Bn in 2020.
That is a lucrative market, but Mobavenue faces competition from players like Inmobi, Affle and global giants like Applovin and The Trade Desk. However, what differentiates the startup is its proprietary service platform that enables brands to make data-informed decisions, refine strategies, and optimise costs. This is crucial in an era when nearly 40% of global digital marketing spend is estimated to be wasted on underperforming campaigns.
The startup is preparing to lead the charge as the digital ad space shifts toward AI-driven personalisation and privacy-conscious practices. “Technologies like contextual advertising and persona-based targeting, which analyse usage patterns without collecting personally identifiable information, will play a pivotal role. As consumers demand stronger data protection, Mobavenue’s privacy-first approach positions us to lead this shift,” said Joshi.
The only glitch: Despite all tech advantages, markets will always be about people and what they choose to buy. Technologies like madtech can help brands carve a path to reach consumers amid constant flux. But brands, publishers and tech service providers like Mobavenue must understand why and how people choose. That will remain the cornerstone of effective campaigns and madtech success.
