Infibeam Avenues to list digital marketing arm; plans to foray into AI space

Fintech firm Infibeam Avenues on Tuesday announced a slew of major decisions to scale up business and expand its presence in digital marketing and enterprise software platforms. The board of the company, in a policy meeting yesterday, approved listing of its digital marketing subsidiary on the domestic stock exchanges as well as foraying into Artificial Intelligence (AI) space to tap the burgeoning AI-enabled fraud detection market.

In an exchange filing, Infibeam Avenues says that the company plans to list its digital marketing arm, Odigma Consultancy Solutions, on the Indian stock exchanges, subject to requisite approval by regulatory authorities. Odigma was acquired in 2014, and currently, it facilitates businesses to create and manage their online presence. It offers services such as content creation, web development, social media management, email marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, and online reputation management.

As per the company, Odigma recorded revenue and net profit growth of 13.47% Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and 11.43% CAGR in the last two years, post Covid-19. The client list has soared by 100%, going upwards from 45 to 90 clients, which include JBL, Puravankara, Blaupunkt, Shriram Properties, Kurlon, Interglobe Aviation, among others.

As per the company, the listing will allow Infibeam Avenues to club its digital asset -- .OOO (phonetic pronunciation – Dot Triple O), its Top level domain to Odigma. “Clubbing its top level domain business will provide Odigma with a superior edge over other digital marketing players in the industry,” it says.

The value of Indian digital marketing market stood at $3,931 million in 2022, which is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 30% during 2023-2028 to reach a value of $19,268 million by 2028. Globally, the digital marketing sector is booming and is expected to touch around $672 billion by 2028.

“The rapidly expanding digital marketing industry is poised for exponential growth in the upcoming years, attributed to the widespread digitalisation of economies worldwide. Company aims to achieve heightened flexibility, enabling it to capitalise on diverse market opportunities in India and beyond," says Mathew Jose, the Chief Executive Officer of Odigma Consultancy Solutions.

In a separate filing, Infibeam Avenues announced its plans to establish India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) HUB headquartered at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City). The company will initially focus on the fintech and financial sector building AI solutions for fraud detection, authentication and risk identification (FAR) to nurture the AI ecosystem and develop solutions for the domestic and global market.

“The company plans to make a strategic investment in the next three years to build and nurture the AI HUB. This strategic move includes building an in-house talent pool by hiring AI engineers, data scientists, and other staff, initiating global collaboration and facilitating AI start-ups with access to funding, mentorship, infrastructure and business opportunity for growth,” it says in the filing.

Vishal Mehta, who is an engineer from Cornell University USA and an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will oversee the daily operation of AI HUB, while continuing as chairman and managing director of Infibeam Avenues.

The release further stated that Infibeam sits on huge payment processing data, which provides a technology edge to build a deep learning algorithm and models for detecting frauds in the financial space. The company processed transactions worth ₹4.5 lakh crore (US$54 billion) in FY23 and has over 8 million plus clients across digital payments and enterprise software platforms.

Initially, the company’s focus areas will be in the digital payments and financial space, where AI & machine learning (ML) algorithms detect fraudulent activities in online transactions, such as credit cards, online banking or ecommerce, on a real-time basis. In the long term, the in-house team at AI HUB will develop customised fraud detection and prevention solutions for banking, financial services, insurance, FMCG, manufacturing, fintech, utility sector, government and government agencies.