Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired SVG Media, one of India’s largest independent digital agencies, from The Smile Group. SVG Media employs 280 people in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, across its flagship agency brands, DGM, Komli and Seventynine. The company will join the network’s Asia Pacific digital marketing agency Columbus, and be rebranded as SVG Columbus. Dent

Smile Group founder and co-founder, Harish Bahl and Manish Vij, will not continue as directors of SVG Columbis, but will instead focus on investments through the Smile Group. The Smile Group will also retain the Tyroo Techlabs business.

Dentsu Aegis Network is currently Google’s largest search partner in India, and the addition of SVG Media will further strengthen its search position in the market. Founded in 2006, SVG Media offers diverse digital media competencies including online performance marketing, mobile app distribution, social and web services. The group has one of the largest client bases in the Indian digital media sector with over 700 monthly active advertiser campaigns locally, as well as international clients in Dubai, Indonesia and China.

“India is a significant market with rapid growth potential in its mobile and performance marketing business, and Dentsu Aegis Network India has a strong track record in the search and performance space to deliver this,” said Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. “Given its capabilities in data-led search, performance marketing and mobile, SVG Columbus is ideally positioned to capture the fragmented long tail publisher market in India using technology and data. As a group, we have leading position in digital in India, particularly in search and performance and this gives us a clear leadership position in this area. We will now have over 1,300 digital professionals, accounting for over 35 per cent of our revenues, well ahead of our competitors.”

SVG Media is Dentsu Aegis Network’s second significant acquisition in the Asia Pacific region in as many weeks, following its recent purchase of Grant Group, the largest independent creative agency in Sri Lanka.