Publicis Groupe brings Razorfish to India with Neev acquisition

Publicis Groupe has acquired Bengaluru-based Neev Information Technologies, a service provider offering applications across web, social and mobile. The agency will be rebranded as Razorfish Neev, marking the entry of Publicis Groupe’s interactive marketing company Razorfish into India.

The new entity will be headed by the Neev CEO Saurabh Chandra. Kanika Mathur, president, Digitas India, will take on the additional role of managing director, Razorfish India.
“Razorfish can now offer scaled expertise in India, complementing its already strong presence in Greater China and Australia,” said Vincent Digonnet, president APAC, Razorfish and Digitas networks.

He added, “At the core of Razorfish lies innovation and technology, and we can only launch the brand in a market with a very deep tech development capability. Neev is providing us with the right engine, including an ability to deliver sophisticated state of the art web, e-commerce, mobile and social solutions. In addition, the acquisition will support the development capabilities of Razorfish technology teams in the US.”

In conversation with Campaign India, Mathur said, “The biggest thing about this development is the technology bit brought to the table by Razorfish. And, Neev has fantastic experience in the area of creating technology-based consumer experiences. So, the whole focus is creating business transformation through technology-based experiences.”

Saurabh Chandra, CEO, Neev, said, “Neev has always delivered its work by leveraging leading edge technologies in cloud and mobility. With Razorfish we are looking at taking this to a larger portfolio of clients. Our focus remains delivering solutions to our clients that solve real business problems with the best combination of creativity and technology.”

Srikant Sastri, VivaKi country chair, India, who is overseeing the acquisition of Neev, added, “With the acquisition of Neev, we have added cutting-edge tech capabilities. We are now twice as large as any other global network in terms of digital team strength and revenues, and unparalleled in breadth and depth of digital skills.”

Founded in 2005, Neev employs a team of 250, of which over 220 are technologists. They will now add to the 2,800-strong global team at Razorfish.

Earlier this year, Publicis Groupe acquired Mumbai-based digital agency Convonix, following its acquisitions of iStrat (December 2012), Resultrix (August 2012) and Indigo Consulting (April 2012).