Sidharth Rao, co-founder of Webchutney and Punt Partners, passes away

Sidharth Rao, who co-founded one of India’s first and finest digital agencies Webchutney passed away on Friday evening.

He is survived by his parents and wife. Colleagues and industry executives are taking to social media platforms to mourn the loss.

Rao founded digital agency Webchutney 23 years ago when taking a bet on the internet was being done by very few. Rao built the agency from the ground up and it was acquired by Dentsu in 2013.

In 2022, ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’, a campaign created by his team for media outlet VICE World News, won the biggest three Grand Prix awards at the Cannes Lions festival. Despite the scale and repute, Rao stepped down from his role as CEO of the dentsuMB Group last year to dabble with entrepreneurship once again. He had co-founded Punt Partners with Madhu Sudhan, which will build on the growing mar-tech space in India.

In a conversation with Storyboard18 in January, Rao spoke about untapped potential of martech segment, hiring the right talent and his legacy.

When asked about his legacy he said it was the people who have worked with him and then ventured out on their own to achieve entrepreneurial ambitions. Rao said he's proud of his people who have done well for themselves.

"Of course, PG (Aditya) and Gautam (Reghunath), who have gone ahead and started Talented and responsible for the spectacular run at Cannes in 2022. Talented, in less than a year, has made its mark with some great campaigns for clients. And there is a number of Webchutney alum I’m very proud of all around the world, a few of them have turned entrepreneurs themselves," he said.

Over eight months ago, Rao shared this.

“Today, I’m taking a punt. No, really.”

“Starting up after building Webchutney would give anyone performance pressure. Nervous to announce that starting up in services again (but not competing with Webchutney, you’re welcome).

Excited to introduce Punt_Partners with my cofounder Madhu Sudhan, in mar-tech services. Madhu and I landed on this whitespace, a potentially $100 billion industry, after dozens of ideas and at least 3 MVPs.

We pray for all your love and good wishes for the success of Punt. Because true to its name, it is one for me."

Over eight months ago, Rao shared this.

“Today, I’m taking a punt. No, really.”

“Starting up after building Webchutney would give anyone performance pressure. Nervous to announce that starting up in services again (but not competing with Webchutney, you’re welcome).

Excited to introduce Punt_Partners with my cofounder Madhu Sudhan, in mar-tech services. Madhu and I landed on this whitespace, a potentially $100 billion industry, after dozens of ideas and at least 3 MVPs.

We pray for all your love and good wishes for the success of Punt. Because true to its name, it is one for me.“