Brightcom Group Founder Chairman Suresh Reddy voted as Indian Affairs Innovative Dynamic Entrepreneur of the year 2019 at ILC Power Brand Awards 2019
Suresh Reddy,Founder, Chairman & CEO,Brightcom Group was recognized at the much awaited 10th Annual India Leadership Conclave & Indian Affairs Business Leadership Awards 2019, also known as ILC Power Brand Awards. The historic & iconic annual conclave currently in its 10th annual edition debated on the theme “Opportunities – Can India Seize India $5 trillion economy by 2025”. Leading voices & noted leaders of the country gathered at the commercial capital of india in mumbai on friday,23rd August 2019. The conclave highlighted the burning topics of india with a specific emphasis on Modi 2.0.
Top achievers of the country who were in nationwide polling by Network 7 Research were recognized & honored at the ILC Power Brand Awards. Speaking on the process of selection & methodology, Satya Brahma, Founder Chairman of India Leadership Conclave said “India Leadership Conclave’s objective is very simple & clear. We don’t follow a fixed set of rules of traditional theories of selecting a nominee in the final six list either based on seniority, age or celebrity status. We go by our research, experts advice& bring to light those talent & innovators who never got noticed in mainstream media or recognized. When they see their names in the big six final list, they feel proud, for us, that is the winning moments after relentlessly following & chasing for finding the credible name!”
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Conceptualized& instituted in the year by India’s most respected journalist Satya Brahma, India Leadership Conclave Awards are are meant to highlight & celebrate those individuals & companies who’ve ascended to the top of their business against all odds. Currently celebrating its 9th successful annual editions, iconic figures such as Ratata Tata, MukeshAmbani, Naresh Goyal, Narayan Murthy, Shiv Nadar,SudhaMurthy,Priyanka Chopra, Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Late Yash Chopra, Govinda, Rani Mukerjee, Sushimita Sen, Karishma Kapoor are some of its proud recipients. Being India’s most iconic leadership awards having a tremendous impact on the credibility of the Group, India Leadership Conclave jury takes every steps to ensure fair, credible & independent selection process,.The nomination categories, eligibility criteria, selection process & evaluation criteria constitute the core areas of research. Public voting constitutes its biggest parameters. Physical interviews by Network 7 Media Group Journalists on ground on each nominee are conducted followed by Jury’s strong analytical verdict. The set of awards developed by the Board Members of the Network 7 Media Group is to propel the talent engine & encourage, motivate the innovative entrepreneurs. These leadership awards are aimed at empowering the leaders who think differently.This recognition voted by the people of india& subsequent by Jury Board reflect the Winner’s remarkable achievement & accomplishments as a leader of substance driven by passion, initiative & commitment to deliver excellence. India Leadership Conclave Awards are special as we don’t follow any traditional guidelines, defy conventions & crown winners based on innovations, merit & competence. Our decision is based on number of factors which are transparent, robust & driven by extensive research.
Shri Ashish Shelar,Hon’ble Minister of School Education, Sports & Youth Welfare, Government of Maharashtra, Padma Shri Dr. Mukesh Batra & Mr. Satya Brahma conferred awards to the shining stars of india.
Artificial intelligence is taking the industry by storm. Video-based consumer centric advertising is emerging that will not only allow customers to view advertisements but also allow them to buy the product with a click. Huge shift is happening in the internet of things, blockchain making every aspect around us ‘smart’. We are now positioning ourselves in this
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Suresh is the Chairman & CEO and co-founder of the Brightcom Group. An entrepreneur with a commitment to building high-value businesses, Suresh is responsible for promoting the success of the group and its worldwide functions and sustainability. With over two decades of online marketing and advertising experience, he has a strong understanding of building competent cross-country and cross-cultural business operations. He directs and supervises the group’s strategy and its implementation globally.
Through his global network of trusted relationships with peer entrepreneurs, corporates, partners, institutions and the media, he has consummated, completed and integrated ten major acquisitions for Brightcom Group, coupled. Brightcom group, under his leadership, has raised $100 million in equity and debt. Brightcom Group consolidates Ad-tech, New Media and IoT based businesses across the 24 countries, primarily in the digital eco-system. It was recently featured at 449th position in the Fortune 500 India in the 2018 list. Clients include leading blue-chip advertisers like Airtel, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Hyundai Motors, ICICI Bank, ITC, ING, Lenovo, LIC, Maruti Suzuki, MTV, P&G, Qatar Airways, Samsung, Viacom, Sony, Star India, Vodafone, Titan, and Unilever. Publishers include Facebook, LinkedIn, MSN, Twitter, and Yahoo! Brightcom works with agencies like Havas Digital, JWT, Mediacom, Mindshare, Neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy One, OMD, Satchi&Satchi, TBWA, and ZenithOptimedia, to name a few. Before this role, he worked in various roles across different industries in Fortune 500 companies, such as Caterpillar, Chrysler, SBC(PacBell) and Charles Schwab.In his social, not-for-profit endeavors, Suresh has served on the board of TiE Hyderabad for the last four years. He is currently the President of the chapter until December 2019. He has also been part of Hyderabad Angels and Trustee in ‘Heal a Child’ foundation in the past.
Suresh holds an M. S. in Engineering from the Iowa State University and a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.The Journey Suresh completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT -Kharagpur (1985 – 89), and his Master’s degree in Engineering from Iowa State University in the US from 1989 to 1991. He started his career with AM General Inc., manufacturer of the Hummer vehicles in Detroit, as a design engineer and worked on the redesign of M1 Abrams Tanks. He then worked for Caterpillar and Chrysler, on the Dodge Ram truck and CAT tractors as part of a structural engineering and design team. The software bug bit him when his childhood friend, Vijay Kancharla, asked him to apply for his old job at Pacific Bell. Vijay is now the co-founder and CIO of the Brightcom Group. In the Bay Area, Suresh and Vijay met more often and discovered a shared desire to start their own business. They saw an opportunity in the billion-dollar greeting cards industry. The idea was to print physical greeting cards and sell them in the US. But they could not get the logistics in place in time for the holiday season. Later on, with the advent of the Internet and higher speed connectivity, they ventured into the digital space and started USAGreetings.com. Thus began their entrepreneurial journey on a part-time basis. In 1997, Suresh moved from Pacific Bell to Charles Schwab.
Suresh is the Chairman & CEO and co-founder of the Brightcom Group. An entrepreneur with a commitment to building high-value businesses, Suresh is responsible for promoting the success of the group and its worldwide functions and sustainability. With over two decades of online marketing and advertising experience, he has a strong understanding of building competent cross-country and cross-cultural business operations. He directs and supervises the group’s strategy and its implementation globally.
Through his global network of trusted relationships with peer entrepreneurs, corporates, partners, institutions and the media, he has consummated, completed and integrated ten major acquisitions for Brightcom Group, coupled. Brightcom group, under his leadership, has raised $100 million in equity and debt. Brightcom Group consolidates Ad-tech, New Media and IoT based businesses across the 24 countries, primarily in the digital eco-system. It was recently featured at 449th position in the Fortune 500 India in the 2018 list. Clients include leading blue-chip advertisers like Airtel, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Hyundai Motors, ICICI Bank, ITC, ING, Lenovo, LIC, Maruti Suzuki, MTV, P&G, Qatar Airways, Samsung, Viacom, Sony, Star India, Vodafone, Titan, and Unilever. Publishers include Facebook, LinkedIn, MSN, Twitter, and Yahoo! Brightcom works with agencies like Havas Digital, JWT, Mediacom, Mindshare, Neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy One, OMD, Satchi&Satchi, TBWA, and ZenithOptimedia, to name a few. Before this role, he worked in various roles across different industries in Fortune 500 companies, such as Caterpillar, Chrysler, SBC(PacBell) and Charles Schwab.In his social, not-for-profit endeavors, Suresh has served on the board of TiE Hyderabad for the last four years. He is currently the President of the chapter until December 2019. He has also been part of Hyderabad Angels and Trustee in ‘Heal a Child’ foundation in the past.
Suresh holds an M. S. in Engineering from the Iowa State University and a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.The Journey Suresh completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT -Kharagpur (1985 – 89), and his Master’s degree in Engineering from Iowa State University in the US from 1989 to 1991. He started his career with AM General Inc., manufacturer of the Hummer vehicles in Detroit, as a design engineer and worked on the redesign of M1 Abrams Tanks. He then worked for Caterpillar and Chrysler, on the Dodge Ram truck and CAT tractors as part of a structural engineering and design team. The software bug bit him when his childhood friend, Vijay Kancharla, asked him to apply for his old job at Pacific Bell. Vijay is now the co-founder and CIO of the Brightcom Group. In the Bay Area, Suresh and Vijay met more often and discovered a shared desire to start their own business. They saw an opportunity in the billion-dollar greeting cards industry. The idea was to print physical greeting cards and sell them in the US. But they could not get the logistics in place in time for the holiday season. Later on, with the advent of the Internet and higher speed connectivity, they ventured into the digital space and started USAGreetings.com. Thus began their entrepreneurial journey on a part-time basis. In 1997, Suresh moved from Pacific Bell to Charles Schwab.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of buzz about dot coms and their project started to attract traffic – enough to force them to shift to their servers. They realized they needed professional designs for the greeting cards and set up a design team in Hyderabad, India. In 1998 Suresh quit his job when the business gained in size and required his full-time attention. By 2000 the team grew to 25 people in Hyderabad and eight people in San Francisco. The dot-com euphoria was reaching a peak and was bound to slow down. They decided to refocus on providing Rich Media platforms for communication in the year 2000 and accordingly changed the name of their company from USAGeetings.com to Ybrant Technologies. Since digital advertising and marketing space was a fast emerging opportunity, they shifted the core of the company to digital marketing and advertising. They built technology-based platforms to deliver, track, report and optimize online advertising campaigns across Email, Display Ads and Search marketing. As the online advertising space grew, the business grew, and Ybrant Technologies became a fastgrowing US company with backend operations in India. The client base increased to 150 firms in the US, mostly comprising of Ad agencies and AdTech companies serving advertisers.Ybrant Technologies soon established itself as a robust backend and technology platform for digital advertising. The next step was to move into the front-end to leverage their expertise and improve market access, which they did through the acquisitions route.
In the 2006-2007-time frame, they signed up to acquire three of their clients, AdDynamix based in Los Angeles, California; VoloMP based in Serbia and MediosOne out of Vail, Colorado. The company raised $20 million in 2008 from Sansar Capital to finance the acquisitions. The revenue was below $10 million at that time, and with these acquisitions, consolidated revenue went to $24 million with $6 million in profits. Ybrant took the leap from an Indian back-office operation to the forefront of the Digital AdTech world, quickly repositioned itself as Ybrant Digital, and offered end-to-end digital marketing solutions to advertisers, publishers and agencies. Suresh’s team soon realized that 50% of traffic online was coming from outside the US, which presented an excellent opportunity to scale the business. They acquired Oridian from Israel, an internationally focused digital advertising company, that was already present in 13 countries across EU and South America. Ybrant went on to buy more companies across South America, Australia and the US. To fund the mergers and acquisitions, it raised funds from PE firms like GE Asia Pacific, Oak Investments and Battery March Funds. The total fundraises through debt and equity have been about $100 million thus far.
The journey from a small $5 million company to the current $350 million has not always taken the scenic route. They did have their ups and downs. In 2012, Ybrant Technologies did a reverse merger by acquiring LGS Global Ltd., a BSE listed company which was a mobile and cloud computing based developer. The acquisition hit several roadblocks as the merger required permission from the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which took a significant amount of time. They had to write-off one hundred fifty crore Rupees from the books of the merged company on account of uncollected receivables and had to pay down the debt of equal magnitude over the next six years. In 2010, they acquired Lycos Inc., which gave the company better recognition with their clients due to the blue-blooded pedigree of the Lycos brand name. The company did have some legal challenges on the closing price of the same. In 2013-14 the company started a consumer product division called LYCOS Life, focused on IOT and fitness. The division’s first few products include a fitness band and ID ring. The division continues to develop products to cater to the next generation of Internet users.On the B2B side, the company launched a programmatic advertising platform to address Video opportunities in 2015-16. This platform, called Brightcom turned out to be the most successful product launched by the company thus far. Pixelate rated Brightcom as #1 in the world in terms of consumer trust index. This opportunity continues to multiply for the company.
Most recently, Brightcom Group has started a new group focused on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. A 100-member team is servicing some initial clients in the area of Agri-tech, e-commerce and Pharma. In their 20 years of existence, the company succeeded in establishing a reliable brand in digital media and new age Internet business and today has a business size of about Rs.2500 crores in 24 countries across the US, South America, Israel, Europe and Australia.
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