Digital media solutions company Komli Media has announced the launch of Komli Labs, a centre for research in online advertising.

Mr Srinivasan H. Sengamedu, former Director of Research at Yahoo Labs, has been appointed Vice-President and Head of Komli Analytics and Labs.

Of the 300 staff at Komli, 90 are engaged in R&D currently, housed mostly in a facility in Bangalore. The R&D spend will double in 2012, said a company spokesperson, without divulging specifics.

Komli Labs will focus on driving innovation in digital advertising through applied research and big data analytics, in the areas of real time bidding, audience measurement and targeting, ad verification and traffic quality management, said a company statement. The Labs team will be deeply integrated with various teams at Komli.

The R&D team at the company is credited with developing a real time bidding (RTB) platform ATOM, which was introduced in the market in December.