Marketing and digital network Wondrlab is in the final stages of acquiring homegrown advertising major Madison World from founder Sam Balsara for about ₹1,000 crore ($120 million), according to two people familiar with the matter.
If completed, the transaction would mark the largest acquisition of an independent Indian advertising agency by a domestic marketing firm, underscoring intensifying consolidation in one of the world’s fastest-growing ad markets.
The deal would also signal the exit of Balsara after nearly four decades at the helm of Madison, which he founded in 1988. Over the years, Madison built a formidable presence in media planning and buying as well as integrated marketing services, competing with global holding companies while remaining independently owned; a rarity in a sector dominated by multinational networks.
Madison is estimated to handle gross billings of roughly ₹5,000 crore, employs about 1,500 people and services more than 500 clients across sectors.
An official email sent to Balsara did not elicit a response. Wondrlab declined to comment.
The development comes after nearly a year of intermittent stake-sale discussions around Madison.
In early 2025, global advertising networks including Publicis Groupe and Havas were reported to be in talks for a majority stake in the agency. At one stage, France-based Havas was seen as close to acquiring a 70-75% stake, with valuation expectations ranging between ₹700 crore and ₹1,000 crore. However, those negotiations did not culminate in a transaction.
Madison had at the time described media reports as “purely speculative” and maintained that nothing concrete had materialised, even as it acknowledged openness to a partnership that would future-proof the business.
The proposed Wondrlab transaction, if concluded at around ₹1,000 crore, would align with the upper end of valuation expectations that had surfaced during earlier negotiations.
The stake-sale discussions last year also coincided with heightened competitive pressure in the media-buying market and a broader regulatory overhang following a Competition Commission of India (CCI) probe into alleged anti-competitive practices across parts of the advertising ecosystem. Madison had moved the Delhi High Court challenging aspects of the investigation.
For Wondrlab, founded in November 2020 by former media executive Saurabh Varma, the Madison acquisition would be its most consequential bet yet.
While Wondrlab has built capabilities across creative, digital, technology and performance marketing through a string of acquisitions, it lacks a large-scale media planning and buying arm. Acquiring Madison would give it immediate heft in media-a capability that typically requires years of investment, scale relationships and capital to build organically, people aware of the transaction said.
The combination would create a full-stack marketing and martech platform spanning media, creative, digital and data, positioning the merged entity as a scaled Indian challenger in a sector historically controlled by multinational holding companies such as WPP, Dentsu, Publicis, Omnicom and Havas.
One of the persons cited above said the transaction would also significantly bolster Wondrlab’s scale as it evaluates a potential public listing. The Madison buyout would mark Wondrlab’s eighth acquisition, following deals for agencies and technology firms including WYP, Neon, Opportune, OPA, WebTalk in Poland, Cymetrix and Big Step Technologies.
