You're reading it here first: Online advertising solutions company Vizury has laid off around 50 people in 3 cities in its ad retargeting business, and pivoted its business model to a data management platform (DMP) business, the company told MediaNama. However, sources, on condition of anonymity, told MediaNama that the number was close to 110, and contended that Vizury is moving away completely from its retargeting business. Sources had also told MediaNama that Vizury is shutting its Mumbai office, which the company hasn't commented on. Vizury had been launched as a retargeting firm in 2011, and went on raise $27 million across multiple rounds: $2 million in Series A in February 2011, followed by $9 million in October 2012 and last raised $16 million in June 2014. It has investors like Intel Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, Ascent Capital, Ojas Ventures and Inventus Capital Partners. A shift to being a primarily a DMP business is a shift in core mandate for the company. In an email, Vizury told MediaNama that they've evolved from being a retargeting company to a "big data marketing company" over the last two years, and that it believes that this is a natural evolution of its business. Vizury is now divided into two broad businesses: digital advertising and data analytics. The full statement: Vizury's full statement Since our inception, we have always believed that data is important for any brand’s marketing needs and all our offerings have always had a data-backed approach. In this pursuit, we have evolved from a retargeting company to a big…
