Mumbai-based Rainmaker Ventures has invested $750,000 (Rs 4.93 crore) in Singapore-based digital media marketing startup Oplifi, the investment firm said in a statement.
The two-year-old startup will use these funds to develop technology products and expand into new markets.
“With Oplifi we are increasing our investment footprint in the digital marketing landscape,†said Atul Hegde, co-founder of Rainmaker Ventures. “We now have investments in the digital design and content space, influencer marketing and amplification, and now into programmatic.â€
Hegde said that the investment also expands its investment base into Southeast Asia.
He added that Rainmaker was actively looking at investing in areas that include user interface, user experience, digital video creation, influencer marketing platforms and Internet of Things integration services. It will look at companies in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, besides India.
Oplifi was founded in 2015 by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Gautam Dutt and Anup Kumar.
Dutt is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. He has 15 years of experience in the advertising and marketing industry across Asia Pacific. He headed the digital services vertical at Singapore-based Havas Media before co-founding Oplifi.
Kumar is chemistry graduate from Delhi University and last worked at Gurgaon-based Mindshare.
The startup says its marketing and advertising technology offerings help companies conduct their paid digital media campaigns effectively and connect to the right audience.
The startup counts among its clients companies such as Lufthansa, Motorola and Vicco in India, RWS and Amex in Singapore, Trapper Media in Malaysia and Cyber One Group in Hong Kong.
“Programmatic is the future of our industry. With our background in media planning and buying we hope to contribute towards making this space more strategically aligned with marketing,†said Dutt.
Hegde, a digital marketer-turned-entrepreneur, and industrialist Sudhir Menon had joined hands in December 2015 to launch Rainmaker with an early-stage fund of $50 million target corpus.
It focuses on investing in areas that include consumer Internet, digital commerce, business-to-business e-commerce, software-as-a-service, logistics technology, education-tech and health-tech.
Some of its other investments include digital content company YAAP Digital and bus aggregator Limo.