The start-up, which has already signed up some of the leading media brands in the UAE, is looking to generate a revenue of at least $5 million from the MENA market in the next three years.
India-born media marketing start-up, iZooto, which launched in the UAE in July, is looking to generate a revenue of at least $5 million from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market in the next three years, a top company executive said.
The start-up, which has already signed up some of the leading media houses in the UAE, is also working on entering into partnerships with local firms in the GCC to accelerate growth plans in the region.
“The media industry in the MENA region is expected to see a huge growth in the coming years on the back of far reaching policy shifts initiated by countries like the UAE and Saudi to propel themselves as major economic power houses. The [media] industry, especially the digital media, currently lacks enabling and sector-specific technology tools to fully exploit the growth potential,” Vivek Khandelwal, co-founder and chief operating officer of iZooto, told Arabian Business.
“Our technology platform is developed to precisely address and resolve this gap. Hence, we are bullish on the growth prospects of both our venture, and also most of the media houses in the region in the coming years,” said Khandelwal, an alumni of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai.
iZooto’s ‘owned audience marketing platform’ is designed to help publishers own, engage and retain their audience. It enables publishers to monetise their audience by driving more page views using push notification ads, leading to boosting revenue growth
The start-up’s platform has reached a scale of pushing 6 billion notifications daily.
Khandewal said the MENA region will be among the major focus markets for iZooto in the next two years.
“Within MENA, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be the core markets for us and we are in the process of putting in place an aggressive growth strategy in these markets through a strong network of partnerships,” Khandelwal revealed.
“We also have plans to expand our operations within the GCC region to countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Oman in the immediate future. We are currently in talks with some of the local companies for entering into partnerships as part of our entry strategy in these countries,” said the iZooto co-founder.
India and the Southeast Asia region are the other two focus markets identified by iZooto for its aggressive growth plans over the next two-year period.
Khandelwal pointed out that most marketing automation platforms are built to serve specific verticals such as DTC (direct to consumer), e-commerce, BFSI (banking, financial sector and insurance) and travel aggregators.
“Until recently, none existed that addressed the problems of publishers and publishers were forced to buy products that didn’t serve their specific needs. iZooto directly tackles both of these issues, serving as a platform built for editors and audience managers. This approach gives power back to the publishers,” he said.
Khandelwal said, along with the geographical expansion, the venture would be aggressively working on developing and adding more products on its platform to further aid its growth plans, strengthening its leadership position in this space within the media industry.
“We are already providing a suite of products and will be further expanding our product offerings as part of our growth strategy,” he added.
iZooto’s current client list includes some of the largest media brands in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Finance World staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
