Excl: Komli Media appoints Rakesh Malani as CFO

Mumbai-based digital media technology platform Komli Media has appointed Rakesh Malani as its chief financial officer (CFO). Although the company has declined to comment on the development, an official confirmation could be out later this week. We checked out Malani's LinkedIn profile that clearly mentions that he has been with the company since early 2013 (less than seven months, to be precise).

Interestingly, while it has not been officially announced, Rajesh Ghonasgi, who had been appointed as Komli CFO in May 2012, is no longer a part of the company. According to his LinkedIn profile, he left the company in May this year, after serving for just 13 months. His mandate at Komli involved overseeing the company's financial operations including corporate governance and mergers & acquisitions. He was also responsible for leading and expanding the company's engagement with the investor community. 

Malani brings in over 20 years of experience. Prior to Komli, he co-founded edvantEdge Learning Networks Pvt Ltd, a technology-cum-service platform, where he also served as the director. Earlier, he was the CFO for the financial services strategic business unit (FS SBU) and the Asia-Pacific region at Capgemini. He had also worked at companies such as Kanbay International, Portal Software, AT&T and Reliance Industries. Malani holds an engineering degree from Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences (TITS), Haryana, and an MBA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – College of Business (US).

Komli Media offers solutions across display, mobile, video, social, search and data for advertisers, agencies and publishers. Its offerings include a real-time bidding (RTB) performance advertising platform called ATOM that integrates audience data to improve return on investment. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company has over 400 employees across 18 offices in India, Australia, New Zealand, South-east Asia, the Middle East, Hong Kong and North America.

In June 2012, Komli raised $39 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Western Technology Investment. In January 2011, it had raised $15 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners, while existing investors Helion and Nexus also participated in that round. The company had also raised $6 million in July 2010 and $2 million in January 2008. In total, it has raised $62 million till date.

In March 2013, Komli restructured its leadership teams to further accelerate its growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. As part of the restructuring, Gulshan Verma, the-then managing director of Komli Media's India and North America business, was promoted to the role of chief revenue officer (CRO). Akshay Garg, co-founder of Komli Media and MD for South-east Asia, was also made global head of strategy and business operations.

The company also created a new CRO organisation, which consists of all the regional and business MDs across Komli Media worldwide and will focus on addressing the marketer's need for integrated media solutions. It also re-branded itself (for enhanced brand visibility) and added logos to its individual product offerings including Komli Play, Komli Mobile, Komli Engage, Komli ROI and Komli Audience.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)