Sidharth Rao, Co-Founder of Webchutney and Punt Partners, has passed away. He died of a heart arrest at the age of 43 on Friday evening.
Punt Partners said in a statement about Rao’s premature death, “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and founder, Sidharth Rao.” On April 21st, he died of a heart arrest at his house in Karjat. Sid’s untimely death has taken us all by surprise, and we ask for everyone’s patience while we mourn the loss of our dear friend, son, brother, husband, and colleague. Sid’s family is extremely grateful for all of the condolences and offers of support received at this difficult time.”
Rao started Webchutney with Sudesh Samaria in 1999, and remained with the company for 23 years. Under his leadership, the agency has worked with brands and companies including Flipkart, Google, Uber, Swiggy, WeWork, Ikea, Under Armour, Airtel, Tata Sons, and Whirlpool amongst others. In 2013, Webchutney was acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network.
Dentsu Webchutney was the most-awarded Indian agency at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2019. After the acquisition of Webchutney by dentsu, he was the CEO of the company.
In January 2020, he became the Chairman of dentsu’s creative agency Happy mcgarrybowen (HMB) India and Dentsu Webchutney. Rao was given the additional responsibility of Group CEO of the dentsuMB Group in June 2021 as part of dentsu’s creative, digital and PR services restructuring.
In May 2022, he quit dentsuMB and launched Punt Partners along with the entrepreneur Madhu Sudhan. Rao served on the jury of some of the most celebrated advertising festivals in India and around the globe.
Rao also wrote a book titled, “How I almost blew it” capturing many nuances that go behind launching a start-up.