O&M Takes Stake in Indian Tech Firm PennyWise

WPP-owned marcoms network Ogilvy & Mather is to acquire a majority stake in Indian digital tech firm PennyWise, which offers a range of software and services for mobile app development; social media monitoring; SEO; analytics and business intelligence.

The Hyderabad-based company was set up in 2003 by current CEO Anand Morzaria (pictured), and now employs more than 140 people. Its social listening software monitors social media networks, consumer review sites, and collaborative research sites, and also allows facilities for immediate response, a dashboard to help clients draw out insights from the data, and an analytics platform to capture sentiment, location, demographics, reach and impact.

Following the acquisition, PennyWise will serve as the digital technology and production centre for Ogilvy & Mather in India. Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director for Ogilvy South Asia, describes Pennywise as 'simply the best' digital technology and production firm in the business.

Morzaria comments: 'This partnership will help us combine our deep and proven expertise in developing digital and new media technology solutions with Ogilvy's own offerings for clients across India and other APAC markets. Together, we will be able to meet and exceed the demands of our highly valued and expanding customer base.'

Web sites: www.ogilvy.com and www.pennywise.com .