Digital ad agency Webchutney and Punt Partners founder Sidharth Rao dies
- ByStartupStory | April 22, 2023
Sidharth Rao, the founder of Webchutney and a partner at Punt Partners, passed away on Friday. He is survived by his wife and parents. In 1999, Rao founded Webchutney, one of India’s first digital advertising agencies, which was later acquired by Dentsu in 2013. In 2021, he was appointed head of the India unit of dentsuMB, the restructured global creative network of Dentsu. Under Rao’s leadership, Webchutney won the top awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2022 for Vice Media’s The Unfiltered History Tour production.
Sidharth Rao, founder of Webchutney and Punt Partners, passed away on Friday. After launching Webchutney in 1999, which was later acquired by Dentsu, he went on to head the India unit of dentsuMB. Rao left dentsuMB in 2021 and co-founded Punt Partners with Madhu Sudan. The advertising and investor community expressed their condolences on social media. Angel investor Mahesh Murthy said, “Absolutely shocked to hear of Sidharth Rao’s passing. A good friend and fellow traveller.” Clevertap founder Anand Jain tweeted, “Lost a very dear friend. go well, Sidharth Rao. Have no words how much he meant to me.”
According to Sidharth Rao and Madhu Sudan, there is a $100 billion opportunity in the MarTech industry that is currently not being adequately addressed. The incumbents in this space are either IT services firms without complete marketing context or traditional advertising networks who are playing catch-up through inorganic buy-out strategies. Rao believed that with the rise of digital advertising, MarTech is gaining significance and that we will see a wave of large-scale MarTech service providers emerge from India. Punt Partners, which Rao co-founded, aims to get a head start in this field.
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