Webchutney co-founder Sidharth Rao passes away

Sidharth Rao, who co-founded one of India's first and top digital agencies Webchutney and a marketing technology firm Punt Partners, has passed away, according to media reports.

He passed away on Friday evening. He is survived by his parents and wife.

At the age of 19, he started Webchutney with Sudesh Samaria, which was the most-awarded Indian agency at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2019.

In 2008, he incubated Network Play under Webchutney, which in less than three years became the largest brand ad-network, one that was later acquired by Bertelsmann AG. In 2013, Webchutney was acquired by Japanese multinational media network Dentsu Aegis Network. Talking about the take over with the co-founder of afaqs! he said, "Dentsu got in a CFO, Benny Augustine. To be honest, I was initially suspricious. But over time I realised that instilling financial discipline in a freak like me was game-changing."

While he continued to head Webchutney, in 2021 he was also appointed as head of the India unit of dentsuMB, the restructured global creative network of the company.

Punt Partners

In 2022, Rao stepped down as group CEO of dentsuMB India and joined hands and launched a new venture in the marketing technology (MarTech) space, called Punt Partners along with serial entrepreneur Madhu Sudan.