Publicis acquires digital shop Neev; Razorfish India to be Asia hub

Neev will be branded as Razorfish Neev. For Publicis, the move is part of its goal to double its size in India by 2015. Razorfish India will act as a hub for Asia in particular, but also for the US and Europe on some technology developments.

The deal makes India the largest market in Asia for Razorfish and Digitas. The company expects Razorfish India to grow by 15 to 20 per cent year-on-year for the next three years. 

Vincent Digonnet, APAC president of Razorfish and Digitas, told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the India launch had been in the pipeline for two years. “We had identified India as a key technology market and a worldwide hub, given the depth of its technology talents as well as the fact that it is an English-speaking country.” The timing, he explained, was based on two factors: finding a company to acquire and evaluating the tipping point in the Indian domestic market, when digital marketing and commerce would seriously take off.

Razorfish will be launching offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. The Paris-based holding company’s other digital agency, Digitas, launched in India in 2010. The new agency will be led by Neev CEO Saurabh Chandra. Chandra will report to Kanika Mathur, managing director for both Razorfish and Digitas India. She will liaise directly with Ray Velez, global CTO for Razorfish.

This is the fourth acquisition by the Publicis Groupe in the digital space in the past year. Last month, it picked up Convonix, a digital agency in Mumbai. It also bought iStrat, Resultrix and Indigo Consulting.

Neev opened its doors in 2005 and now employs 250 people, of which over 220 are technology experts. It has seen revenues grow 45 per cent year-on-year since 2007, the company said. Clients brought by Neev include Google, Infocast, AppDynamics, Monsanto, 24/7 Customer, Ashoka and InMobi. Razorfish has its own roster, which includes Indian conglomerate the Aditya Birla Group. Digonnet said there are four more clients to be signed on in the next two weeks.        

Publicis acquired Razorfish from Microsoft in 2009, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at US$530 million. Razorfish became part of Microsoft in 2007, as part of a deal for its parent company aQuantive.