The PubMatic IPO — A Huge Milestone for Indian Venture Capital and Indian Software Industry
We connected with Amar Goel in Mumbai in 2007, a few months after he co-founded Komli Media. An ex-entrepreneur with marketing experience at Microsoft, he understood the on-line advertising ecosystem and opportunities that could be addressed with specialized infrastructure and unique technology. He and his three co-founders - Rajeev Goel, Mukul Kumar and Anand Das - had a vision of using technology to deliver superior revenue to Publishers. Rajeev led market development out of Silicon Valley while Mukul and Anand built the product development and engineering teams in Pune, India, a hotbed of technology talent. Nexus thought highly of the team, saw the large potential of this open-ended opportunity and thus led Series A investment in PubMatic in 2008.
The company identified the critical need for brand management and user experience for digital publishers while optimizing revenue. This became the main focus point for PubMatic. The technology team continued to build the product in Pune while the marketing and sales operations were set up in Redwood City headed by CEO, Rajeev Goel and Chairman, Amar Goel. The company raised a total of about $60 million in private financings, dramatically less than what technology start-ups usually raise till they go public. This has resulted in exceptional outcome for the PubMatic team and attractive returns for investors.
Today, PubMatic has become a leading provider of optimization infrastructure to digital publishers globally and perhaps first India originated venture-backed enterprise software company to go public in the US (NASDAQ: PUBM). This marks a big milestone for both the Indian software industry and Indian venture capital. We have been very fortunate to have been partners with an exceptional management team from the early days of their journey. We hope that this will open the gates for other Indian enterprise software companies to scale globally and consider IPOs in the US and India.
At Nexus Venture Partners, we have been pursuing the vision since our inception that the Indian technology Industry will evolve along two vectors — domestic Internet led businesses and enterprise software for global markets. Up until the previous decade, the Indian technology sector was known for its successful IT Service and BPO companies serving the globe. It required a considerable leap of faith to believe that India can create globally competitive software, which requires a mindset shift from cost arbitrage to cutting edge innovation. Kudos to Rajeev, Amar and Team PubMatic for showing the way!
Team Nexus
