Saurabh Varma, founder and CEO of Wondrlab, believes micro-influencers are the future of brand storytelling. 

The former Publicis Groupe CEO for India has completed six acquisitions since launching the Mumbai-based martech platform in November 2020, with the recent purchase of influencer marketing firm OPA marking its latest expansion.

“The authenticity which comes from content creation, which an influencer can create in our mind, is five or six times more powerful than using celebrities,” says Saurabh, who spent 17 years at Publicis Groupe overseeing agencies including Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi before founding Wondrlab.

The company operates across four business segments: digital video content and community, digital media and data, digital business transformation, and marketing technology. Through its marketing tech division, Wondrlab has developed WISR, an in-house platform, alongside Amazon bid optimization tool Hector.

“If you spend the same amount of money on micro or nano-influencers, chances are you will get six times more engagement [and] reach impact,” Saurabh says, explaining the strategic rationale behind acquiring OPA and fellow influencer platform Opportune.

Despite India’s celebrity-driven advertising market, Saurabh sees micro-influencers as an untapped opportunity. 

“In India, we are a land of celebrities,” he says. “It’s about Bollywood, and everybody has their favorite celebrity for the campaign. However, unleashing the micro and nano-influencers, which further propels storytelling across mediums, is a powerful platform for brands.”

A Strategic Push into Product Trial Marketing

Through the OPA acquisition, Wondrlab has expanded its creator economy presence. The deal comes as Wondrlab looks to consolidate its position in India’s growing influencer marketing space, building on its earlier acquisition of Opportune in 2021.

“OPA, in a good month, will do almost 40,000 creative collaborations. There are singular brands who might use OPA to unleash 10,000 creators in a single month,” says Saurabh, highlighting the platform’s operational scale. 

The acquisition brings complementary capabilities to Wondrlab’s existing influencer marketing operations. While Opportune focuses on Instagram influencers, OPA specializes in product trials and barter arrangements.

The technology behind OPA was a key factor in the acquisition decision. Founded by two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates, the platform has just 25 employees. “We looked at the tech stack, evaluated that, and realized that it was completely complementary to what we had,” Saurabh explains.

Wondrlab sees particular potential in combining OPA’s capabilities with Hector, which provides detailed product performance data. 

“Let’s assume you’re a hair brand or shampoo. I can tell you that you need to focus on smoothening and not on curls, for example, because all that data comes to us from Hector,” says Saurabh. “It’s a plug-and-play for us to combine Hector and OPA and create synergy using technology.”

Wondrlab’s acquisition strategy represents a data-informed approach to growth. 

“When we look at acquisition, we are looking at valuations, the growth profile of the company, the tech stack, and from a data perspective, we are looking at the numbers,” Saurabh says. “We are also looking at whether there is a strategic play. How does it fit in as part of your total portfolio? Where is the synergistic effect in our portfolio?”

For Wondrlab, combining commerce media data and influencer marketing presents a unique opportunity. “Every platform today has tons of data on the influencer, but finding a way to link how D2C brands are doing on commerce media and combining that with OPA is actually where the holy grail is,” notes Saurabh.

Creating Massive Scale for Brand Storytelling

Wondrlab’s acquisitions significantly expand its influencer marketing capabilities, bringing its total network to nearly half a million creators with OPA’s 300,000 micro and nano-influencers and Opportune’s 150,000 with only about 13,000 overlaps.

The integration of OPA into Wondrlab’s operations is expected to be seamless, building on the company’s experience with its existing Opportune platform. 

“Our teams, which we refer to as integration managers, already do a cross-sell across multiple platforms. So for them, embracing one more platform was never really an issue,” Saurabh explains.

Each platform will serve distinct roles in Wondrlab’s marketing mix, with Opportune focusing on content creation and OPA specializing in product trials. The strategic division addresses several key challenges brands face. The combined network offers brands a cost-effective solution for authentic content creation at scale. 

“When a brand chooses to shoot something on its own, the cost of production is massive,” says Saurabh. “It makes so much sense from a brand’s perspective to unleash not one celebrity but thousands of micro and nano-influencers, have authentic stories, create that momentum on the ground, not spend money on production.”

Saurabh sees this as increasingly vital for brands needing consistent engagement across multiple platforms. He predicts growth in influencer marketing investment, citing trends in China as an indicator: “We think a lot of dollars will ultimately migrate towards the influencer economy [in China].”

Wondrlab Eyes Global Expansion Through Strategic Tech Hubs

Wondrlab is reimagining the traditional agency network model as it pursues international expansion. It focuses on establishing strategic technology hubs rather than building offices in numerous countries. 

The company actively seeks acquisitions to fill portfolio gaps and expand its geographic footprint, positioning India and Poland as key operational bases.

“When you look at legacy networks, they were born out of following clients. You had a global client, like a P&G or Unilever, and they moved into 100 countries, and you built offices in 100 countries,” says Saurabh. “The new networks will be built differently. They will be built by creating what we call GCCs, or global capability centers.”

The company’s expansion strategy includes targeting acquisitions in several key areas: Adobe Consulting, CRM Salesforce Consulting, digital video content and community (DVCC), and UX/UI services. Saurabh hints at a content company acquisition announcement soon.

The selection of Poland as Wondrlab’s European hub is a strategic step in the company’s international growth. “Poland is maybe the only market where the economics work. There is great tech talent and hard-working people. The economy is growing,” Saurabh explains.

The company sees an opportunity to build a new global network from emerging markets. 

“All great networks came out of the Western world, but no networks have been born out of the New World,” says Saurabh. “Our point is, if not us, who? That’s the journey we are taking, trying to build not only a great company but a great network out of India.”