We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. The next eChai Startup Demo Day is on 29 August in Bengaluru and Pune. The next after that is on 26 September, all in person, with 11 cities confirmed and 467 founders registered. See your city
Marketing & Growth

What new AI-driven ad channels and media-buying agents should founders watch beyond Meta and Google?

AppLovin's Axon engine opened self-serve to all ecommerce advertisers in mid-2026 and already rivals Meta's Audience Network on conversion for some categories, TikTok's Smart+ keeps widening automation, and agent-to-agent media buying (with standards like AdCP) is moving from concept to early production. For a founder the play is to master one core channel first, then use these emerging channels as cheap arbitrage while big advertisers are still slow. Expect your role to shift from clicking buttons to setting goals and guardrails for buying agents.

Go deeper

17 resources.

More in Ads & Performance Marketing

Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Grow & market, our Starting Up track.

eChai Partner Brands