‘At Veritas Reputation PR, we believe in being specialists and not just generalists’

This IPRCCA special series feature highlights the Fastest Growing Agency of the Year winner, Veritas Reputation PR Pvt. Ltd., at the 15th edition of IPRCCA. It is a specialised strategic communications firm that counsels many of India’s leading financial institutions, companies, fintech players, and start-ups.

The story of Veritas begins with its founder, Hemant Batra, a chartered accountant by profession and a communicator at heart. With over 25 years of expertise and guidance, he has steered Veritas Reputation PR into becoming one of India’s fastest-growing public relations firms specialising in 360° strategic communications, delivering an impressive average annual growth rate of more than 35 percent.

Today, nearly 75% of Veritas’ clients come from the BFSI sector including marquee names in banking, insurance, wealth management, fintech, and the public sector. Beyond BFSI, Veritas supports brands across diverse industries and across 28 Indian states, helping them accelerate growth, build strong reputations, and strengthen public communications. Its services span media relations, corporate reputation management, and issues & crisis communications, powered by one of the industry’s most effective preparedness models.

To uncover the secrets behind Veritas Reputation PR’s success in the BFSI niche and beyond, we spoke with Founder & Managing Director, Hemant Batra. In our conversation, he shared insights into the agency’s seven-year journey, what truly sets it apart in terms of market knowledge, execution, and results, as well as its roadmap to sustain growth and shape the future of communications in India and globally.

Excerpts:

Can you walk us through your journey from the agency’s inception to becoming India’s fastest-growing agency?

Veritas Reputation PR completed its 7 years of operations in January this year. Since day one, we have aimed at bringing depth and credibility to financial and corporate communications in India. Our focused and objective-driven approach has assisted us in carving a niche in BFSI and corporate PR, building a team of domain specialists who understand both the business and regulatory nuances of these sectors. This approach also led us to experience unconventional growth in our journey, where our business grew at an average rate of over 35 percent year-on-year.

We fostered a work culture of continuous learning and innovation, which ensured Veritas Reputation always stayed ahead of the curve. Our internal monitoring and collaborative ideation system outperforms legacy agency structure. Sincerity, commitment and consistency matters more than one-off flashes of brilliance. Our clientele, with almost 75% from the BFSI segment, includes leading national and global players of the banking sector, insurance, wealth management, fintech disruptors and public sector leaders.

Throughout this journey, winning several industry awards and recognitions like IPRCCA 2022 Specialised Consultancy of the Year – Finance, Fastest Growing PR consultancy of the years at the 15^th edition of IPRCCA 2024, and other awards motivated us for higher goals.

Veritas Reputation PR’s journey has been eventful and purposeful, powered by our people and our internal culture of trust, sincerity and commitment.

What sets your agency apart in terms of market insight, execution, and results?

Three things: expertise, leadership and integrity.

We believe in being specialists and not just generalists.

Our consultants are vertical experts in BFSI, fintech, corporate, and policy. Their domain expertise and strategic acumen are further honed by our strong leadership with 100+ years of collective experience. Our consultants are mentored to fine-tune PR suggestions for business impact. Our team’s agile mindset makes them quickly adapt to the dynamic media environment, both traditional and digital, to deliver stories of business relevance to our clients, be it investor trust or policy influence or media perception.

What do you believe has been the agency's biggest contribution to the communications industry so far?

When we set out with a singular goal of establishing a BFSI-focused agency with consultants that are domain experts, we faced a talent void. We then decided on creating a talent pool of Financial PR experts in India who aced the craft of PR & corporate communications for the highly complex sector of BFSI. Today, we have built a culture that develops domain specialists through our initiatives like Veritas Expert Mondays, flipped classrooms, and our in-house Veritas Research & Innovation Unit.

Our induction into Financial Narrative, a global network of financial communications and marketing firms, strengthens our team's expertise as they learn about emerging trends, strategies and innovation shaping financial storytelling worldwide. With these continuous upskilling, our team not only thinks like sector experts but also advises clients with authority. This has helped us raise the standard of communications across every client, irrespective of their retainers.

It is with great pride, I say that many of our past colleagues and our alumni, are today leading the corporate communications for prominent financial institutions in India. And this is our contribution to the industry and our proud legacy.

How do you plan to sustain and shape the future of communications in India and globally?

Learning from recent industry disruptions, it is evident that the future of communications lies at the intersection of domain expertise, data proficiency and cultural intelligence.

We are investing in all three by leveraging technology for AI-enabled narrative mapping, global knowledge exchange via Financial Narrative (where we are their exclusive India partner), and our continued focus on developing and nurturing skilled talent with domain acumen.

Adapting to the dynamic and complex corporate landscape of India, our consultants will aim to be a strategic partner for our clients to assist them face business challenges in an evolving economic landscape.

What does winning Fastest Growing Agency of the Year at the 15th edition of IPRCCA mean to you?

This recognition is a validation of our belief that growth without compromise is possible.

We’ve grown by staying true to our values of building expertise, culture and relationships. It also showcases that we are on right path to achieving our vision of becoming one of India’s leading Financial and Corporate PR Consultancy.

This honour belongs to every Veritas Reputation team member and every client who trusted us with their communication mandates. Such recognitions propel us to keep doing purposeful work that drives impact and real reputation value.