Punt Partners, the tech start-up co-founded by Sidharth Rao and Madhu Sudhan in September 2022, has announced its foray into creative services by launching “Punt Creative.” The company has appointed Sumera Dewan to lead the creative division. In her new role, she will be responsible for establishing and driving the creative business for the company. Dewan joins Punt Partners from Dentsu Webchutney, where she served as the vice president. She joined Webchutney in 2016.
“Sumera brings strong leadership and people skills, an enviable repertoire of work, and a passion for pushing the boundaries of what creative can do for brands. During the first half of this year, Sumera, Sidharth, and I spent time defining our vision for this new service offering. It was clear to us that the convergence of technology and creativity would empower the advertising industry to commit to effectiveness,” said Madhu Sudhan, co-founder of Punt Partners.
With a career spanning 13 years, Dewan has worked in both account management and strategic roles across agencies. She started her career with JWT India (now Wunderman Thompson) and went on to work with multiple agencies such as Soho Square Advertising (now 82.5 Communications), Jack in the Box, and Dentsu One (now part of Dentsu Creative).
She has worked with a diverse range of clients, including YouTube, Nestle, Airtel, Under Armour, Tinder, Spotify, Unilever, Platinum Guild International, among others.
Talking to Storyboard18 about the need to set up Punt Creative, Dewan said that there seems to be an excessive focus on perfecting output rather than prioritizing the desired outcome.
“How can we expect brands and marketing leaders to trust agencies to achieve strategic marketing objectives when we ourselves hesitate to take ownership of the metric? How can we feel disheartened about dwindling creative budgets if we cannot ensure that advertising is investment-worthy? This made us realize that there is a need for an agency that can solve business problems creatively. This is how Punt Creative came to be—a creative agency within a technology company that is focused on producing solutions that don’t just move the heart but also the needle,” she noted.
Dewan said that their leadership embodies a fusion of technology and creativity.
“Our talent spans writers, designers, data analysts, community managers, technologists, and developers, all working together to solve problems. Our current team is a high-performing, lean group of 15 individuals, including writers, designers, data analysts, community managers, technologists, and developers. As we look ahead, our plans include expanding the team to 30 members by the end of our first year,” she added.
In December 2022, Punt Partners raised its first round of funding from individual investors from the world of media, advertising, marketing, and startup founders. The round also saw participation from funds like Point One Capital, Namma Capital, and Real Time Angel Fund, along with the creative agency Talented.
Some of the investors include known names in the industry, such as Anand Jain (co-founder, CleverTap), Ashish Hemrajani (CEO, BookMyShow), Deep Kalra (founder, MakeMyTrip), Harish Bahl and Manish Vij of Smile Group, Kunal Shah (founder, CRED), Phanindra Sama (Founder, Redbus), Rajan Navani (Founder & CEO, JetSynthesys), Santosh Desai (MD, Future Brands) and Sarbvir Singh (CEO, Policybazaar) among others.