Japanese advertising major Dentsu acquires 51% stake in Taproot India

Japanese advertising major Dentsu Inc. has acquired 51 per cent stake in Mumbai-based advertising agency Taproot India Communication Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Post-acquisition, the company will be called Taproot and will be a part of Dentsu Network. However, the firm will continue to operate under its current management.

“While we are doing fine on the creative front, we needed to add a bit more logistics and service capabilities across markets. With Dentsu as our partner, we can scale up several areas of our operations very quickly without losing what has been working for us so far,” said Agnello Dias, co-founder and chief creative officer (CCO) of Taproot India.

The deal with Dentsu will also enable Taproot India to offer a more comprehensive bouquet of services to its clients and across larger markets.

Taproot India was co-founded by Agnello Dias and Santosh Padhi back in 2009. It brings to Dentsu a team of 33 full-time employees and an impressive roster of clients including PepsiCo, Airtel, Times of India, Polycab, Marico, Karbonn Mobiles, Myntra.com, Mumbai Mirror, Nirma, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund, UTV Bindass and UTV Stars, among others.

Rohit Ohri, executive chairman of Dentsu India Group, said, “This alliance will give a significant boost to our growth plans in India. We will also ensure that Taproot’s creative culture stays intact. It will just have a lot more firepower added through integrated communication execution capability and an all-India network.”

A wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu Inc., the Dentsu India Group comprises three standalone full-service advertising agencies – Dentsu Communications, Dentsu Marcom and Dentsu Creative Impact – as well as Dentsu Media and Dentsu Digital.

Dentsu has recently acquired UK-based media buying company Aegis Media in a $4.9 billion deal. Last October, D2 Communications Inc., a joint venture between Dentsu and the Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo Inc., had invested over Rs 50 crore in Singapore-headquartered mobile media start-up Affle. Early last year, Dentsu also acquired its three India joint ventures – Dentsu Communications Pvt Ltd, Dentsu Marcom Pvt Ltd and Dentsu Creative Impact Pvt Ltd – by buying the 26 per cent stake held by its partner Sandeep Goyal through Mogae Consultants Pvt Ltd.

Last we tried accessing the Taproot India website, a message came up saying it was under construction.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)