MAM
Drivex shifts gears with Vivekanand Kini to steer tech-driven growth
MUMBAI: Drivex is revving up its digital engine, and at the helm of this acceleration is Vivekanand Kini, appointed as senior vice president for technology & product. With 18 plus years of experience in technology and product engineering, including 8 years in leadership roles, Kini joins as the pre-owned two-wheeler disruptor doubles down on its tech-first strategy.
From cloud-native architectures and microservices to scaling B2B and B2C SaaS platforms, Kini’s career spans leadership roles at Acko, Ivy Mobility, Khoros, and Opentext, with earlier stints at Oracle. At Acko, he spearheaded transformational initiatives that reshaped engineering operations expertise now set to drive Drivex’s ambition of building a robust digital backbone for India’s fragmented pre-owned two-wheeler market.
“Mobility is being reshaped through technology, and Drivex is at the forefront of this transformation,” said Kini, adding that his focus will be on building scalable platforms to deliver seamless customer journeys from discovery and financing to after-sales.
Welcoming him aboard, Padma Shri Narain Karthikeyan director Drivex said: “Technology powers every touchpoint at Drivex from smarter vehicle evaluations and strict quality checks to complete transparency on every two-wheeler parameter. Vivekanand’s expertise in scaling platforms and leading high-performing teams will help us strengthen our digital backbone and redefine the pre-owned mobility category.”
The timing is critical. Drivex is in rapid expansion mode, opening new stores across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, while also scaling Drivex Direct, its C2C platform that offers consumers greater choice and convenience. With ambitions of deeper market penetration, Kini’s appointment signals Drivex’s determination to transform customer experience through tech innovation.
As the pre-owned two-wheeler space shifts into higher gear, Drivex is banking on Kini to keep its engine running smooth, fast, and future-ready.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
