How Social Beat grew into a $5M-a-year digital agency with 300 employees

Who built it, and what they built

Vikas Chawla is the founder of Social Beat, a Chennai-based digital growth partner that works with hyperscaling startups and major brands across India and Asia. The agency launched in December 2012 and has grown to a team of more than 300 growth experts.

The firm positions itself around ROI-driven digital marketing, aiming to build brands, acquire customers, and retain them for clients. It reports an MRR of $400,000 and manages 3% of the country's digital media investment.

Where the idea came from

Before starting up, Vikas worked as head of digital and product at a bicycle company. His last corporate role was at TI Cycles, where he managed turnovers of $7M and launched Montra, described as India's first performance bicycle brand, while leading its digital marketing.

While partnering with a digital marketing company for the bicycle brands, he noticed agencies chased digital metrics instead of business outcomes. That gap pushed him to start Social Beat in the early days of the internet in India, when the country had fewer than 100 million internet users.

The first client was a chain of dental clinics whose founder met the team at an event where they spoke about the future of social media marketing. The engagement ran on a pay-for-performance fee model and lasted for years.