SINGAPORE - Mumbai-based ad tech company Fork Media is expanding into Southeast Asia with a new office in Singapore that will run business in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The company later intends to expand to Philippines and Vietnam.
“There is an increased demand for technology and an equally sized consumer base creating a great opportunity,” Fork founder and CEO Samar Verma told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “As a market Southeast Asia has developed a conscious policy of emerging as a hi-tech hub and has built capabilities in both enabling firms and deploying technology for regional development.”
In Southeast Asia, Fork is pushing its flagship platforms: Native ad platform Brand Press and Impulse, an image recognition and monetisation product. The company also plans to launch its influencer marketing platform, Buzzerati, localising it for regional markets.
The company has hired Ayesha Surty Vinayak as country director for the region. She has previously worked for Star TV, Turner and the Times Television Network.
Fork media launched in March 2013 in Mumbai with two employees. It has since grown to a 110-person team across India, Dubai and Singapore. The company has inked deals with media houses like NDTV, HT Media Group, India Today Group and The Hindu.
The firm was the maiden venture of former Indiatimes CEO Rishi Khiani’s startup incubator Ant Farm. Since its incubation, Fork Media has not separately raised any capital and has been able to fund the business on the strength of its own growth, the company claims.
In 2015, it acquired Wi-Fi advertising network Spid Info Media, a platform that helps brands reach out to audiences using Wi-Fi networks at airports, cafes, malls and other public spaces. More recently, Fork Media tied up with Twitter’s enterprise API platform Gnip to gain access to the social-network's audience and content-performance metrics.
Verma’s approach for the region includes demonstrating the company’s products and how they help create alternate inventory. “We have already initiated these conversations with publishers in the region and will be working on a roadmap to get our products certified by their teams and implement them.”
Fork Media is also working with brands and agencies to integrate its programmatic platforms with their demand-side platforms.