Ex-Yahoo executives start online ad venture

Industry veteran Rammohan Sundaram, whose previous assignments included heading the national sales team at Yahoo, Tribal Media and Madison has established a digital advertising space networkplay.in. Joining Sundaram are four of his former colleagues from Yahoo and Sidharth Rao of online search advertising firm Webchutney. The venture has found venture capital funding from Network18's capital lending arm Capital18.

Networkplay.in is focused on audience-centric vertical ad-network targeting brand advertisers. It will cater to the

Rs 100-crore advertising banner space, estimated to grow at 20-25 per cent annually and become a Rs 550-crore market by 2010-11. "Our plan is to grow the market by bringing in traditional companies from verticals such as FMCG, healthcare, education and mobility companies online," said Sundaram.

Currently, it has launched two offerings for travel and women verticals and will soon launch business, technology, news, shopping, social media and entertainment categories as well.