Truecaller India is ramping up its monetization game.
The communication giant has officially appointed Vikas Khanna as its new Senior Director, Ad Sales. This is a significant move for the platform as it seeks to strengthen its direct advertising business in its largest market.
The Mandate: Direct & Premium Khanna’s arrival comes at a pivotal time. Over the last year, Truecaller has been quietly restructuring its advertising machinery, moving away from standard programmatic reliance toward an industry-led, direct sales model.
Khanna is tasked with accelerating this shift. His focus will be on:
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Driving direct brand partnerships.
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Pushing the adoption of direct-only premium inventory.
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Developing industry-specific advertising solutions that go beyond standard display ads.
This aligns with Truecaller’s broader strategy to sell outcomes, not just impressions. The company has recently invested heavily in AI-driven measurement, introducing its proprietary ‘ROI of Trust’ framework to link ad performance directly to business impact.
A 25-Year Industry Veteran You don’t hand over a critical revenue mandate to a rookie. Khanna brings over 25 years of experience across the media spectrum—print, TV, and digital.
His resume reads like a timeline of Indian media evolution, featuring senior stints at:
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Jio Hotstar
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Star Sports
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TikTok
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ITV Network, NewsX, TV18, and NDTV
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The Times of India & India Today Group
The Leadership View Hemant Arora, VP of Global Ads Business at Truecaller, framed the hire as a scaling move. “Direct brand relationships are central to how we see the future of advertising,” he noted. “With strong foundations now in place… this is the right moment to scale. India is a strategic market for us.”
Khanna’s Take Commenting on his new role, Khanna highlighted the platform’s unique position in the daily lives of users. “I’m excited to join at a time when trust, attention, and outcomes are becoming central to effective advertising,” he said, signaling a focus on building “meaningful, measurable value” for advertisers rather than just volume.
The Bottom Line For advertisers, this signals that Truecaller is getting serious about being a primary media vehicle, not just an add-on. With a veteran like Khanna at the helm, expect the platform to aggressively pitch its premium, data-backed inventory to top-tier brands in the coming quarters.
