"Kulzy will bring transparency into the ad industry": Ambi Parameswaran, investor, Kulzy.com

The first in a series of stories around the industry bigwigs who have invested in Kulzy.com, a data-driven networking platform for the ad-media-marketing community. Today, meet Ambi Parameswaran, executive director, FCB Ulka.

Launched last October, Kulzy.com is a data-driven networking platform for the ad-media-marketing community. So far, the platform has crowd-sourced over 54,000 ads/pieces of creative work and has clocked almost 30,000 registrations across 6,500 communication agencies. The next step is to bring professionals from the television industry into the fold.

Kulzy is looking to expand to international markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, in the days ahead.

Kulzy has raised Venture Capital funding from Seedfund and Bedrock Ventures. What's more? - several advertising bigwigs have invested in Kulzy.com.

What prompted their decision to support this initiative? What change are they hoping a platform like Kulzy.com will help bring about in the advertising industry? Find out through our special series.

Today, investor Ambi Parameswaran, executive director, FCB Ulka, answers these questions.

Edited Excerpts.

Kulzy will bring a lot of transparency into the advertising industry. Transparency about who's working on what campaigns and films. This is because it is all cross-referenced; if I say some film is made by me, then someone else can come and say, 'No, he didn't make the film.' So, it's a highly cross-referenced portfolio.

So, I think Kulzy will bring a lot more transparency into the ad industry.

Kulzy, I think, will also bring a lot of integrity into the industry. We'll see a lot more genuine work, done for genuine brands, by a genuine set of people.

Any new venture will have to be adaptable. It will have to adapt, depending on where the opportunity lies. Like water, it'll have to go with the flow. The good part is - Kulzy sits on the archival strengths of afaqs!.

There are hundreds of small entrepreneurs who want something done. They want an ad done... they want a little film done... Through Kulzy, they can figure out who has done this kind of work before and can contact them. So, Kulzy could actually become a marketplace for talent... and for the work.

Both clients and agencies will benefit. Say, someone applies for a job; you, (as a potential employer), can actually go to Kulzy and check out what work he/she has done. Chances are, you'll also find out who else has worked on it. If there are six other people listed as the copywriters on that film, then you'll know he/she has not written the copy.

All my investments are based on my respect for the promoters. In this case, I respect Sandeep (Vij) as a 'first-class' advertising professional and Sreekant (Khandekar) as an exemplary journalist in the marketing domain. When these guys are behind any venture, I expect it to be of great integrity and quality. So, the people involved were the first reason to invest in this.

Secondly, the concept sounded interesting. It is a kind of portfolio-cum-connecting/networking platform. It is people-focused, advertising-focused. That was very interesting.

Thirdly, I was honoured they approached me.

As told to Ashwini Gangal