Bangalore-based media tech startup SureWaves appoints Ashish Baru as its regional director

Bangalore-based SureWaves Media Technologies Pvt Ltd, which offers a cloud-based media grid that enables large-scale aggregation of audiences across multiple television channels, has appointed Ashish Baru as its regional director (west) to lead business operations of the company in the region.

Prior to SureWaves, he has worked at Headlines Today, Imagine TV and Zee group.

"The television industry is in an exciting phase with a growing number of cable and satellite television channels. Baru, who comes on board with rich experience and track record in media sales, will focus on establishing our leadership position in the market," said Mandar Patwardhan, COO, SureWaves.

Founded in 2006 by former Wipro colleagues Rajendra Khare, Anant Kansal and Tapan Datta, SureWaves's media grid offers an integrated ad aggregation, content delivery, network management, media planning & reporting platform to media publications. The company is building media applications on top of this grid to allow its media clients to attach to the grid through specific devices. It has 30 patents to date on the above technology.

The platform also offers a single window interface to large national advertisers to reach out to mass audiences on a market-to-market basis. The firm claims its connected TV network spans across 29 states and seven union territories in India through partnerships with over 400 cable TV channels that reaches more than 80 million households and 400 million viewers.

Earlier this year, SureWaves raised $5.7 million in its Series B funding led by Canaan Partners. Prior to that, it had secured Rs 10 crore in first round of funding, led by India Innovation Fund and Accel Partners in 2011.