Indonesia’s Adskom Raises Series A for Regional Expansion; Mangham Gaxiola Launches McGarryBowen in Singapore
In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: Indonesia’s Adskom raises Series A for regional expansion; Mangham Gaxiola joins Dentsu Aegis Network, launches McGarryBowen in Singapore; RadiumOne opens Singapore office on back of new funds; MMA beefs up Indian team; and Eyeota gets new data director.
Indonesia’s Adskom raises Series A for regional expansion
The programmatic vendor says it has secured a round of Series A funding from investors Geniee, Convergence Ventures, and East Ventures, but declined to reveal the amount raised.
The new funds injection will go towards driving Adskom’s goal to boost its revenue by 300-500%, as well as expand its market presence to Malaysia and Thailand. The investment also will support development of its programmatic ad services to include mobile and video.
Akifusa Kanda, executive director of the Japanese SSP and ad network Geniee, said in a statement that its involvement in the funding exercise marked the company’s first investment in Southeast Asia.
Prior to this round, Adskom had raised several seed-stage investments from Japan’s Rebright Partners, Digital Garage, Beenos Plaza, and Indonesia’s Skystar Capital. The Indonesia-based ad tech firm operates its own DMP, called Vasa, and also has an SSP offering, Axon, and agency trading desk offering, Actio.
Adskom Co-founder and CTO Daniel Armanto said: “We are a data-driven advertising platform that leverages data collected from our local partners and that’s our unique selling proposition.” The company currently processes 150 million pieces of unique audience data for its local market, and also has operations in Singapore and the US.
Mangham Gaxiola joins Dentsu Aegis Network, launches McGarryBowen in Singapore
Dentsu Aegis has invested in Singapore-based agency Mangham Gaxiola, which will take on and launch the network’s McGarryBowen brand in the country.
Founded in 2012 by former Ogilvy executives Stephen Mangham and Robert Gaxiola, the creative agency has been renamed ManghamGaxiola McGarryBowen and is now part of the Dentsu network, the company said.
Dentsu Aegis Network Southeast Asia Chairman and CEO Dick van Motman: “Singapore has developed into a truly regional hub where an increasing number of headquarters are being set up by blue chip multinationals. [Having] ManghamGaxiola McGarryBowen and Dentsu [here] will expand our creative offering, building on our commitment and footprint in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.”
Mangham and Gaxiola lead the new firm as joint managing partners, working closely with Gordon Bowen, who is founder, chairman, and global chief creative officer of McGarryBowen.
RadiumOne opens Singapore office on back of new funds
RadiumOne’s APAC managing director Kerry McCabe
Following news that the programmatic platform provider raised US$45m in funds, RadiumOne has made its first foray into Southeast Asia with a new office in Singapore.
The company had opened its office in Sydney a year ago, where Asia-Pacific managing director Kerry McCabe is currently based. He said in a statement: “Our experience over the past 12 months across Southeast Asia is that brands and publishers are both curious and progressive around better understanding and commercialising value from the sharing economy.
“We provide brands and publishers with software to capture and analyse sharing data across all social channels. We then act on it while consumer intent and interest is peaking which for many has been the missing link between social data and paid media strategy,” McCabe added. “Our belief is that data insights and media delivery should not be separated.”
The new Singapore office comes on the back of RadiumOne’s announcement last week that it had raised US$54m in new equity and debt financing, with several investors that include Harmony Partners, Industry Ventures, and DFJ Esprit.
The ad tech company said the funds would go towards improving its programmatic ad platform Activate and big data tools, as well as driving its expansion plans into Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Charlie Ballie will move from RadiumOne’s UK office to Singapore later this month, becoming the company’s first executive based in the Asian market. Assuming the role of business development director, Ballie said: “Advertisers are not only realising the potential of programmatic, they also want to unlock the value of sharing. The chance to move with this business and lead the exciting Southeast Asian markets was one I jumped at.”
MMA beefs up Indian team
Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has hired a new country manager for India in a bid to bolster its presence in the market and drive the local industry.
MMA’s new India head Preeti Desai
Preeti Desai joins the non-profit industry group from Rediff.com, where was vice president of strategic alliances and promoted spliced TV advertising to small and midsize businesses. She was also the founding president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India.
Backed by India’s media investment management firm GroupM, MMA aims to grow the adoption of its industry best practices and guidelines, increase education and skills development, as well as develop metrics and tools for the industry.
MMA Asia-Pacific Managing Director Rohit Dadwal said in a statement: “India, a young and highly mobile market, presents the ideal opportunity for innovation in mobile and is only set to grow in the next five years. However, brand investment in the medium is still relatively limited.
“With the market evolving as quickly as it is, this is an opportunity that we need to capitalise on immediately,” Rohit noted.
Eyeota gets new data director
The audience data provider has hired Yoon Jiyoun as director of data operations, which will see her managing the data ops team and drive offline data projects as well as special integrations.
Relocating from New York to Singapore for the position, Yoon reports to the company’s co-founder and head of ops Kristina Prokop. She has 11 years of experience in data management, programmatic, and ad serving, having worked at various data tech companies including eXelate and Xaxis.
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