- Deal marks major APAC investment and makes Adknowledge Asia the region’s leading ad tech company
- Komli Southeast Asia clients have immediate access to Adknowledge Asia social and video ad technology and global experience
- Brands and agencies can place advertisements on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram from a single, integrated platform that delivers insights from campaigns across those social networks to improve targeting and efficiency
To meet the incredible APAC demand for efficient advertising technology in social media and digital video marketing, Adknowledge Asia Pacific Pte Ltd has announced the acquisition of Komli Media, Inc.’s Southeast Asia organization.
This purchase combines approximately 100 sales and operations professionals with Adknowledge Asia’s existing teams in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It adds two new markets—Thailand and the Philippines—to Adknowledge Asia’s APAC footprint, which also includes India, Hong Kong and South Korea.
In the newly combined business, Krishna Krovi (formerly MD of Adknowledge Asia), Damien Lavin (formerly VP of SEA and ANZ, Komli) and (formerly VP of Social, Komli) will run the APAC sales and business operations.
Adknowledge Asia is a venture between Malaysia-based Axiata Digital Advertising—a subsidiary of telecom giant Axiata Group Berhad—and Adknowledge, an advertising technology company headquartered in the United States, with offices around the world. The acquisition accelerates plans to scale the business and help forward-looking brands and agencies drive more ROI from their campaigns.
“There’s incredible upside and demand in the APAC region, and with this deal, we’re investing in additional ‘people power’ to meet it,” acting Adknowledge Asia CEO Ben Legg said. “This creates one of the largest—if not the largest—ad tech companies in Asia, and brings in an enthusiastic, experienced team and their relationships from across the region,” he said.
“Komli Southeast Asia’s team and its clients are in good hands,” Komli founder and CEO Amar Goel said. “Adknowledge Asia has great underlying technology, global presence and seasoned leadership. I’m excited about what they will accomplish together.”
Komli Media India and RevX and are not part of the acquisition by Adknowledge Asia.
At the heart of Adknowledge Asia is the proprietary AdParlor platform, an integrated service that delivers seamless ad placement on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. With it, clients can take what they learn from campaigns on one social media network and use it to improve targeting on others; no other ad tech company offers such insight for its customers. “Demanding APAC advertisers have been searching for technology partners who take media efficiency, targeting and ROI as seriously as we do,” Legg said. “That’s what gets us out of bed every day,” he said.
In addition, Adknowledge Asia, through its partnership with Axiata, is pioneering consumer-friendly, brand-safe strategies to use telecom data to better target ads on social media networks across platforms, including mobile. This opens the door to responsibly monetizing telecom companies’ vast user data. Adknowledge has worked successfully with telcos around the world to use their data to target consumers with the most contextually relevant and appropriate ads.
About Axiata
Axiata Group Bhd (AXIATA.MY) is one of the largest Asian telecommunications companies with controlling interests in mobile operators in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia and significant strategic stakes in India and Singapore. In addition, the Malaysian-grown holding company has a stake in non-mobile telecommunications operations in Pakistan.
Axiata, including its subsidiaries and associates, has more than 260 million mobile subscribers in Asia. Its vision is to be a regional champion by piecing together the best throughout the region in connectivity, technology and talent, uniting them towards a single goal: Advancing Asia.
About Adknowledge
Adknowledge is a digital advertising technology company specializing in using diverse sources of data to place ads via digital video, social media, apps and mobile, content recommendation and email. With 400 employees located on four continents, Adknowledge works with the most ambitious and innovative advertisers to unlock their digital audiences around the world. The company delivers return on investment for clients through advanced data analysis, targeting algorithms, campaign optimization and preferred relationships with major social media networks. Adknowledge’s joint venture with Axiata is considered a model for how telecom companies can monetize their data in a consumer-friendly way.
Its Adknowledge Asia venture serves brands and agencies throughout the APAC region. For more about Adknowledge Asia, visit adknowledgeasia.com.
