By Saumya Tewari

Former Google India executive, Mahesh Narayanan has joined disruptive display advertising company, Sociomantic Labs as Managing Director for India operations. The firm launched its APAC operations and Mumbai-based operations will be run under the leadership of Mahesh who was earlier serving as Country Head, Mobile at Google India.

“Sociomantic is already driving significant value and scale for Indian advertisers through technology-driven display advertising, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to push this company to become the market leaders,” said Narayanan of the new position. “I've had the chance to help many leading media technology companies break into the digital space in India, and I can see that Sociomantic is primed to succeed in this market.”

Mahesh has worked with companies such as Rediff.com, Bidorbuyindia.com, Baazee.com, Mediaturf Worldwide and Times Now. He was the founding member of Google India's direct sales operations in 2005 and helped lay the architecture for the growth of Google in India. He joined AdMob as country head for India in June 2009 to help establish the company's successful local presence.

Following Google’s acquisition of AdMob in 2010, Narayanan returned to Google where he drove the company's mobile business in India.

“Sociomantic is honored to have a leader of Mahesh’s stature on board to service our customers and partners in one of the most promising eCommerce markets worldwide,” said Sociomantic chief executive Jason Kelly. “He brings invaluable experience to our global leadership team.”

Founded in 2009, Sociomantic claims to have grown from 20 to 100 employees in the last fiscal. The headcount is expected to double in the next 12 months.

“From the beginning, Sociomantic has succeeded because of the amazing people we have managed to bring on board, and Mahesh is no exception,” said Thomas Brandhoff, co-founder and managing director of Sociomantic.

In addition to existing offices in Berlin, Warsaw, Paris and Amsterdam, in 2012 the company launched operations in Sao Paulo, Moscow, New York, London and Madrid. Sociomantic claims to deliver intelligent online display campaigns for eCommerce advertisers in more than 50 markets worldwide.