The $1.4-bn valued Amagi is expanding its team extensively in the US and India

The need for technology intervention in the field of targeted advertising has led to the growth of cloud-based broadcast and advertising solutions. One such company, Amagi founded in 2008 democratised TV advertising by making it accessible to small advertisers. Originally, Amagi started by providing targeted TV advertising solutions in India, as a business model. The company quickly pivoted from targeted advertising to lead cloud adoption and bring in cloud technologies for broadcast. Baskar Subramanian, Srividhya Srinivasan and KA Srinivasan founded Amagi to pioneer cloud-based broadcast and advertising technology solutions.

They met during their graduation years at Government College of Technology in Coimbatore. Software engineers by profession, the trio co-founded Amagi after their previous entrepreneurial venture, Impulsesoft, was acquired by Nasdaq listed SiRF. Subramanian leads technology innovation, business strategy and overall execution. Srinivasan as the Chief Revenue Officer is responsible for revenue growth inclusive of sales and marketing. Srividhya as the Chief Customer Success Officer advises global clients on suitable cloud deployment architecture, design custom solutions, and ensure that client’s transit smoothly to cloud broadcast models. On bagging the Unicorn status, CEO and Co-founder of Bengaluru-based Amagi, Baskar Subramanian told Bizz Buzz, “Our investors are confident of our capabilities to expand the business and provide innovative solutions to the customers. They chose to support the company’s expansion plans at a time when the M&E industry is undergoing dramatic shifts towards cloud solutions.”

What are the solutions offered by Amagi?

Amagi is a global leader in SaaS technology providing end-to-end cloud-managed live and on-demand video infrastructure for TV and OTT. Our SaaS solutions serve the full spectrum of the video content value chain. This includes broadcast-grade 24x7 linear channel creation, distribution to linear TV, Free Ad-supported Streaming TV and other OTT platforms, server-side ad insertion, programmatic ad sales for TV and OTT, cloud-based disaster recovery, and more. Using Amagi’s cloud-native technology for content creation, distribution and monetization, content owners, broadcasters, and streaming platforms create live, linear channels for satellite, fiber, or IP delivery and deliver targeted and relevant ads to audiences at scale. They also gain access to a large and fast-growing inventory of channels, platforms, and coveted audiences in entertainment, sports, live events, and more, spanning the CTV universe.

How different are the services of Amagi compared to competitors?

Amagi competes in different segments of the broadcast industry including brick-and-mortar playout services for traditional broadcasters and modern media SaaS providers for content creation and monetization on streaming. We are among the few companies in the world that have end-to-end solutions for live linear channel creation, distribution, and monetization for broadcast and streaming – all combined under one roof.

Give us a brief about the company’s current strength…

Amagi has more than 255 customers from across the globe and has achieved y-o-y revenue growth of over 100 per cent over the past two years. The company supports 700 content brands and over 2,100 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. In 2022, Amagi received $95 million in a new funding round, increasing its valuation to over $1 billion, becoming a unicorn and the most sought-after technology provider with the largest cloud deployment in the broadcasting industry. Amagi also received over $100 million in investment, inclusive of $80 million in primary capital, from global growth equity firm General Atlantic in 2022, bringing its valuation to $1.4 billion. Since then, Amagi has continued to grow and crossed the $100 million ARR threshold after a record second quarter (July-September, 2022). The company has over 700 employees and a presence in leading innovation hubs around the world including New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Melbourne, Seoul, Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation centre in Bangalore.

What are the forward-looking plans, in terms of expansion, hiring and revenue?

Amagi is aggressively growing across regions. We are actively seeking technology enthusiasts with a background in media tech and ad tech sales to join our team in the US. We are primarily expanding our Revenue and Customer Success functions with open positions in Sales, Account Management, Presales, Customer Success Management, Revenue Operations and Product Marketing Management. In India, our focus is on onboarding technology professionals in various roles, including Product Development & Management, Design, Customer Success, and more. Whereas, revenue functions that include Sales, Presales, Customer Success Management and Product Marketing Management, are roles for which we are hiring internationally.

Has Amagi lined up any new solution for this year?

AI-driven personalization, advertising, and live streaming solutions, particularly in the FAST ecosystem.

What is the plan going ahead after achieving the Unicorn status?

Our growth is reflective across key parameters – increase in number of customers, increase in number of channels, increase in ad impressions delivered, increase in number of platforms supported and increase in employee base. Amagi’s vision is to be the most preferred media SaaS company for customers to partner with as they strategise their growth. To that end, we are strengthening our sales and marketing, and product development efforts to build our brand as well as deliver a superior customer experience. Amagi is also exploring allied and adjunct opportunities in the cloud and video market to deliver greater impact across the value chain, seriously evaluating M&A opportunities that can contribute to revenues or add technology capabilities to product lines.

Any acquisitions lined up for entering new geographies and expanding client base?

After achieving the unicorn status in 2022, Amagi made inroads into several promising and emerging markets including South Korea, Japan, Latin America, France, Germany, Australia and more. We have also intensified our focus on the Indian M&E market where we have already established successful partnerships with prominent content providers such as Shemaroo, B4U, Discovery Networks, and more, for FAST and other cloud-enabled broadcast operations. Amagi also announced the opening of its very first European R&D centre in Zagreb, Croatia. The new centre will elevate the quality and speed of the technical support Amagi offers to its European customers while advancing product development efforts. Additionally, we acquired Streamwise, an early-stage data aggregation and reporting platform for content distributors to enhance our data solutions capabilities with comprehensive, more streamlined reporting and dashboards.

Which are the futuristic tech solutions that can further disrupt this industry?

Personalised viewer experience, both in content and ads, is the next frontier in this industry. Adding too many FAST channels to the content repertoire can seemingly lead to choice fatigue amongst users, but this is where features like personalised EPGs (Electronic Programming Guides) can come to the rescue. Also, interactive experiences will make room for elevated ad experiences, leading to a better bank for the buck from an advertiser ROI point of view. Additionally, the ability to measure CTV (Connected TV) ad effectiveness and attribute customer actions to CTV ads is something that has been brewing in the ad tech industry and is going to be a game changer. Leveraging a device graph to map out other devices in the same household where the CTV ad was first served will allow measurement platforms and advertisers to attribute the right level of effectiveness to CTV ads. The process of measurement will be distinct from other digital platforms paving the way for unique measurement methods for CTV ads.

How is the growth prospect of this market?

The streaming market across the world is witnessing double-digit growth, which is also the case in India. In the last calendar year (2021-22), the data gathered from our analytics platform revealed that hours of viewing grew by 332 per cent and ad impressions by 832 per cent.

What is your take on growth of FAST platforms and its future in India?

India is a growth market for FAST. From a user behaviour perspective, FAST lends itself well to an audience that has grown up watching linear programming in the form of cable TV until very recently. The only difference is that it comes with the added benefits of cord-cutting, personalisation, and more. While the CTV market is still in its infancy, it is growing at a much faster rate than in the rest of the world.

Is any government intervention needed to support this market in India?

Ideally, there should be a focused intervention from the Government of India to upskill the media industry workforce to drive cloud-native solutions under the aegis of The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).