Startup Ecosystem Mourns The Loss Of Adtech Veteran Sidharth Rao

Sidharth Rao, the cofounder of one of India’s first adtech startups in Webchutney and the cofounder of marketing tech startup Punt Partners, passed away on Friday, April 21.

Webchutney was launched in 1999 by Rao and was later acquired by the Japanese media network Dentsu in 2013 for around INR 40-50 Cr.

Rao continued to head Webchutney before being appointed as the head of the India unit of dentsuMB, the global creative network of the Japanese multinational media network, in 2021.

Last September, he launched the marketing agency Punt Partners with marketing veteran Madhu Sudhan, who led business at data platform Lio. 

Punt Partners raised its first institutional investment round in December 2022 led by multiple angel investors including Aakrit Vanish (cofounder, Haptik), Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi (cofounders, CleverTap), Deep Ubhi (founder, Flip.ai), Parikshit Dar (cofounder, Bookmyshow), Phanindra Sama (founder, Redbus) and Rajan Navani (founder & CEO, JetSynthesys), among others.

At the launch of his new venture Punt Partners, Sidharth tweeted a long thread discussing how the venture came to be and about the $100 Bn opportunity in the mar-tech space.

Rao’s agency also won the biggest awards at the Cannes Lions International Festive of Creativity in 2022 for Vice Media’s production ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’. 

An angel investor, Rao had backed ScoopWhoop, Mojocare, and Pepper Content. He has also written a book, ‘How I Almost Blew It’, detailing the experiences of some of India’s biggest entrepreneurs including Deepinder Goyal, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Girish Mathrubootham and others.

Since early morning on Saturday (April 22), tributes have poured in from Twitter from industry veterans, including Anand Jain, Aakrit Vaish, and others.

“Sid, I just wish the best for you. Where you are, may your soul rest in peace,” wrote ViralMint founder Rohan Dighe on Twitter on Saturday.

“Lost a very dear friend. go well, Sidharth Rao. Have no words how much he meant to me,” tweeted Clevertap founder Anand Jain.

Aakrit Vaish, cofounder and CEO of Haptik and Heyinterakt, wrote, “Waking up to unbelievable news. We lost the OG of the Mumbai startup scene Sidharth Rao.”

Media firm Medianama’s founder Nikhil Pahwa wrote on Twitter, “I lost a friend today. Sidharth Rao is no more,” recounting a recent meeting with Rao.

Rao is survived by his wife and parents.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.