The Silicon Review ^Asia

Raja Ganapathy, the ex-CMO at Sequoia Capital India, has co-founded Spring Marketing Capital as a move to invest in early-stage technology firms and shape the startup’s marketing and branding strategy by directly working with the founders. In order to establish the firm, Ganapathy got into a collaboration with seasoned advertisement professionals like Vineet Gupta and Arun Iyer who are the ex-group chief executive of DDB Mudra and ex-chairman of Lowe Lintas respectively.

In addition to managing the funds, the firm will also interact with consultancies like Byju’s and Healthkart to assist established companies in their branding efforts.It has also been found that an amount of $30 million funding will be raised, and the company has already received funding commitments from several startup founders and venture capitalists in India.

After mentioning of the plans to understand the role of products and services in a consumer’s life while also shaping the marketing and branding strategy, Ganapathy said that they will be focusing on the entire spectrum from crafting the value proposition to go-to-market approach to online or offline communication. Though the execution part can be outsourced, the company will still exercise its supervision on it.

Ganapathy also talks of the challenges that Indian startups face while branding themselves. According to an estimate, startups spend 40% of the amount raised on marketing. This is where Spring Marketing Capital trying to add value to the sector.“By investing in the company, we are adding our skin in the game. This ensures alignment of goals between Spring and the founder,” he said.