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Based out of Kharadi, a Pune suburb, marketing technology company Digitalzone will close the year with 100 employees in the US, 400-500 in India, and a growing presence in Europe, where it has offices in the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, among others.
Digitalzone’s services include lead generation, content creation, and digital advertising for global tech majors operating in the US and other countries. Today, its customer base contains more than 350 companies in the mid-size and enterprise levels. Having registered a growth of 750 per cent in the last three years, Digitalzone’s revenue graph is on track to touch $40 million this FY and $60 million in the next.
According to Reuters, however, most economists have flagged possibilities of “mild recessions” in Europe and the UK though they expect the global economy to avoid a recession. A Reuters poll shows that the global economy is forecast to grow 2.9 per cent this year but 2.6 per cent in the next. Such an economic slowdown will be a challenge for companies such as Digitalzone.
Rishikkes Pawar, founder, Chairman and CEO, Digitalzone, says “the market is quite good from our industry point of view”. “Even if the economic conditions are not stable, companies that are looking to grow and increase their sales pipeline will need marketing support. The thing is that, when the situation is tough, only companies or players with a strong core, whether services or software, can deliver in a cost-effective way,” says Pawar.
Over the last six years, Digitalzone has created a strategic balance by having sales marketing based across the world and keeping operations in India. “Compared to competitors, who are 100 per cent based either in the UK or the US, we are in a place to provide even better solutions in a more cost-effective way,” adds Pawar.
In fact, in 2024, Digitalzone will add to itself by launching a content marketing platform.
The company hired a chief product officer a couple of months ago and has finalised a new VP of engineering. “Based on our interaction with our clients, we got to know that there was a need where, if we automate a few of the processes in the marketing journey, it would be really helpful and directly impact our customers to improve their return on investment,” says Pawar.
Digitalzone has evolved through “a great amount of struggle understanding the business, keeping up with the expectations of our clients and then also managing finances”.
“In the US, I hired my first couple of employees in 2019 and, then, six months later, Covid hit. It was not the ideal time to enter an international market but I was confident that customers were looking for cost-effective and high-value solutions. Based on that, we were able to scale and earn that trust,” says Pawar.
It is what Pawar tells other business owners, who want to grow in or outside India. “Understanding their own business is very important. A lot of us just focus on the revenue or success part, but understanding the business from the core and having long-term goals are very important. I see a lot of millennials wanting to be successful in a short period of time, which is not practical, and most of the time it doesn’t go that way,” he says.
