MAM
Wondrlab to help clients win in new marketing landscape
NEW DELHI: Advertising and brand communication leaders Saurabh Varma, Vandana Verma and Rakesh Hinduja have launched Wondrlab – a platform-first start-up with three key verticals: content, experience, and digital business transformation.
Wondrlab was created to help clients win in the new marketing landscape. The current structure of the communication industry doesn’t address the fundamental shift in human behaviour, the business landscape or client concerns through a platform lens. The founding team has envisaged a unique product and service model to address some of the big opportunities and challenges. Their strategy is to combine marketing transformation and digital transformation, offer holistic solutions, create value and help clients achieve objectives.
Wondrlab will invest in creating martech platforms to provide tools to enable hitherto complex expensive bespoke executions at the push of a button. All of Wondrlab’s solutions are backed by data and automation that leads to efficiency, measurability and ROI through user-friendly platform interfaces, centralised marketing controls, personalised content and automated solutions at scale.
Wondrlab founder-CEO Saurabh Varma said, “There has never been a better time to disrupt the communication landscape. At Wondrlab all our teams are platform first. We will work with key platforms to create hybrid teams that help clients win on these platforms. We will also curate, partner, and build martech platforms that can create meaningful experiences and become an advantage for our clients.”
Vandana Verma, co-founder and managing partner, experience platform, said, “We have completely platformised brand experiences at Wondrlab. What brands will see are productised events, shopper marketing, retail and brand activations into tech platforms.”
Added Rakesh Hinduja, co-founder and managing partner, content platform, “Brands now have an opportunity to make a personalised connection with their target audience, something that doesn’t happen with a one-size-fits-all approach towards platforms. Wondrlab’s key focus will be service and technology-based platforms combined with creative ideas based on data and human understanding.”
Apart from the traditional retainer, commission and project-fee models, Wondrlab will offer new and evolving structures; these include an objective-based model in which a significant portion of the fee will be tied to the achievement of key client goals and a unique sweat model focused on helping startups scale and succeed.
Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks faces Rs 47.5 crore GST demand, plans appeal
Tax authorities flag alleged misclassification of restaurant services
MUMBAI:Â Jubilant FoodWorks Limited has landed in a tax tussle after receiving a GST demand of Rs 47.5 crore from the office of the additional commissioner of CGST and central excise in Thane, Maharashtra.
The order, issued under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relates to an alleged incorrect classification of certain services under the category of restaurant services. According to the tax authorities, this classification resulted in a short payment of goods and services tax for the period between the financial years 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The demand includes Rs 47.5 crore in GST along with an equal amount as penalty, in addition to applicable interest. The order was received by the company on March 13, 2026.
In a regulatory filing to the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, the company said it disagrees with the order and believes its arguments were not adequately considered.
The company is preparing to challenge the decision and plans to file an appeal. It added that once the redressal process is complete, the demand is likely to be dropped.
Despite the sizeable figure attached to the notice, the company said it does not expect any material impact on its financials, operations or other activities.
The disclosure was signed by Suman Hegde, EVP and chief financial officer, who confirmed that the company received the order at 19:06 IST on March 13 and has already initiated steps to contest it.
The development places the quick service restaurant major in the middle of a tax debate that could hinge on how certain restaurant-linked services are classified under GST rules. For now, the company appears ready to take the matter from the tax office to the appeals desk.
