Investors include Ashish Hemrajani (founder CEO, BookMyShow), Deep Kalra (founder and chairman MakeMyTrip), Kunal Shah and Miten Sampat (CRED), Anupam Mittal (founder, People Group), and Sarbvir Singh (CEO, Policybazaar), among others.

Singh, who was earlier heading Network18’s venture capital firm Capital18, has been named an investor director on the board of Punt Partners.

“I have worked with Madhu and Sidharth closely in the past as an investor and board member at Webchutney and an investor in Madhu’s previous startup as well,” Singh said. “I have no doubt that Punt Partners is poised to capitalise on the opportunities that the evolving digital landscape is creating. Currently, the global mar-tech sector is fragmented. With their prior experience in starting up and managing large teams combined with their execution capabilities, I am sure Punt Partners will create a strong impact in the market soon, and I cannot wait to see their journey unfold.”

The first round featured prominent names from media, advertising, marketing, internet founders and leading funds. The investors include Aakrit Vanish (co-founder, Haptik), Abhishek Surendran (partner, T2D3 Capital), Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi (co-founders, CleverTap), Arihant Patni (managing director, Patni Financial Advisors), Ashish Gupta (MD, Helion Advisors), Deep Ubhi (founder, Flip.ai), Gulrez Alam (co-founder, Aarby Ads), Harish Bahl and Manish Vij (Smile Group), Mihir Jha (partner, Point One Capital), Nabendu Bhattacharya (founder, IdeaCafe), Parikshit Dar (co-founder, Bookmyshow), Phanindra Sama (founder, Redbus), Rajan Navani (founder & CEO, JetSynthesys), Rajat Gupta (co-founder, Mojocare), Rajesh Jain (founder, Netcore), Ravish Ratnam (managing partner, Point One Capital), Rohit Dadwal (MD, MMA Global), Sanket Shah (co-founder, Invideo), Santosh Desai (MD, Future Brands), Shubham Mishra (co-founder, Pixis.ai), and Vivek Bhargava and Gautam Mehra (co-founders, ProfitWheel).

The round also saw the participation of Point OneCapital, Namma Capital and Real Time Angel Fund, along with creative agency Talented.

“We are thrilled to have such a high-quality set of investors bullish about the opportunity at hand,” Rao and Sudan said. “The fundraising process becomes an experience full of value-adds when you’re sitting across the table with seasoned angel investors and successful entrepreneurs like the ones we’re dealing with, many of whom we consider our friends. This round of capital infusion directly goes towards accelerating our global team expansion and operations rapidly.”

Punt Partners’ immediate focus will be to close some strategic partnerships. The company aims to tap into the $100 billion mar-tech opportunity that the promoters think is not being correctly addressed.

Rao was the former group CEO of Dentsu McGarryBowen Group and the co-founder of Dentsu Webchutney, the winner of the ‘Global Agency of the Year’ award at Cannes Lions in 2022.

Sudhan has led growth teams at software as a service (SaaS) companies like Lio and Sensehawk and founded startups Loanzen and Voxapp.