Rajesh Kamat

Rajesh Kamat (Born September 25, 1973) is an Indian media executive and investor in the media and entertainment sector based out of Singapore. Kamat is the Managing Director of Emerald Media, KKR & Co’s New Asia Media platform. He is credited to have taken the TV entertainment channel, “'Colors' to a leadership position within 9 months” from the time it was launched.

Kamat started his career in brand management at Coca Cola India in 1997 after which he has worked with Star TV News Corp. (Asian Arm), Endemol India (India's largest TV production company), Viacom18, Peter Chernin’s CA Media platform and Emerald Media.

Positions held

Coca Cola India - Star TV News Corp. Asian Arm

Kamat started his career with Coca Cola India in 1997. From 2001-2005, he was with Star TV India, handling business planning – commercial and international, media buying and planning, and licensing and merchandising portfolios. He was Senior Vice President – Commercial and Business Planning at Star TV India.

Endemol India

In 2006, Kamat joined Endemol, the world’s largest independent production company, as Managing Director Endemol India. He introduced breakout shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, and local adaptations of popular reality shows Big Brother (Bigg Boss in India) and Fear Factor India into mainstream Indian television, which was until then dominated by family dramas.

Colors and Viacom 18

In 2008, Kamat joined Viacom18 Group (a joint venture between Viacom and Network18) and was CEO their new TV channel, Colors, a General Entertainment Channel (GEC) in Hindi. Colors went on to become one of the top channels in the Hindi GEC space with shows like Big Boss, Fear factor (produced by Endemol and aired on Colors) and social dramas like Balika Vadhu (a show on child marriage) in India. Kamat is credited to have taken “'Colors' to a leadership position within 9 months.”

In 2010, Kamat became COO of Viacom18, taking on the responsibility of other group channels like MTV India, Nickelodeon India and VH1 India. In this role he helped set up Sun18, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Sun TV for pan-India distribution of TV channels. The alliance made Sun18 India's largest multilingual TV network, comprising 33 channels across all platforms including cable, DTH, IPTV, HITS and MMDS.

CA Media

In 2011, Kamat was approached by Peter Chernin’s CA Media to head its Asian arm in India as CEO, and in 2014 he became CA Media’s Group COO for Asia. Under Kamat's leadership, CA Media acquired a 49% stake in Endemol India, with an aim to build it into a leading content production company across television, film and digital content.

CA Media invested in Only Much Louder (OML), a music, live events and youth media company in India and also acquired a stake in Graphic India, a character entertainment company focused on creating lead characters, comics and stories for the Indian youth market through mobile and digital platforms. It also launched Fluence, an online influencer network around celebrities and brands, which works closely with celebrities to develop their online presence across the online digital landscape. Kamat’s role with CA Media is also focused towards increasing its influence in growth sectors like TV Broadcast in markets such as Indonesia (NET Mediatama).

Emerald Media

Kamat co-heads Emerald Media, alongside Paul Aiello. Private-equity firm KKR & Co. has committed up to $300 million to the Emerald Media platform from its KKR Asia Fund II, to fund investments capitalizing on fast-growing opportunities in the media and entertainment industries across Asia. On 2 Nov 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that Private-equity firm, “KKR is backing Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat, longtime deal makers in Asia with operating experience, to form Emerald Media with the aim of making investments in media companies in deals ranging from $15 million to $75 million.” KKR has also acquired a significant, minority stake in CA Media, the Asian media portfolio of The Chernin Group. Kamat with Aiello, continues to manage the CA Media platform.

Honors and awards

Kamat was named "Impact Media Person of Year’ in 2009, followed by the ‘Outstanding Entrepreneur of Asia Pacific’ award for 2010. In 2014, he was recognised by the first "The Economic Times-Spencer Stuart '40 under 40' award for India's Business Leaders."