In the quiet hours between 3am and 5am, while the world slept, Eswaran Mohan and Renuga Nair, co-founders of Exar Technologies, learned they had been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 list under the Social Media, Marketing & Advertising category.
There were no grand celebrations, just a quiet, surreal moment shared in the dark, a sleeping baby between them, and the quiet realisation that years of persistence had finally been seen.
It was recognition not just for what they had built, but for believing in something long before others did.
When AR Wasn’t Cool Yet
Back in 2018, augmented reality was still a novelty. Eswaran, then an electrical-mechatronics student at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), had just come out of an AR hackathon with a prototype for a virtual fitting app. The project fizzled out when his teammates lost interest, but a casual chat with Renuga sparked a new idea: what if you could try on jewellery virtually?
They started small, testing Snapchat’s Lens Studio with Google images of necklaces, overlaying them on selfies, and showing the results to friends. Retailers weren’t biting. But the two weren’t discouraged. They believed AR wasn’t just for fun, it could change how brands interact with people.
So they applied to become Official Lens Creators for Snapchat, and made it. Among the first 30 creators worldwide, they were also the first in Asia to join the platform’s official roster.
From Lenses to Multinational Campaigns
That was the start of Exar Technologies, a Selangor-based creative tech company that now works with over 50 multinational brands, including Nestlé, Fujitsu, Honda, and Foodpanda. Their work spans augmented reality, virtual reality, and AI, helping brands stand out with interactive campaigns that are highly shareable, especially among younger audiences.
One AR campaign for The Nun horror film hit 1.4 million views in a single week. In total, Exar’s Snapchat filters have drawn over 20 million views.
But as Renuga points out, views alone are vanity metrics.
The team monitors two key sets of data. The first includes traditional marketing metrics, impressions, click-through rates, and shares, which help clients understand campaign visibility.
The second focuses on lens-specific engagement, such as the number of plays, shares, and most importantly, watch time, a metric often overlooked.
This kind of insight allows Exar to refine their creative strategies and deliver more meaningful results, helping brands not just be seen, but be remembered.
A Team That Grows Together
Today, Exar is more than a two-person show. Eswaran’s younger brother, Arun Mohan, joined as creative director, bringing animation and 3D skills that took the company’s offerings to another level.
The three work closely, not just building tech, but building trust.
“You need someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself,” says Eswaran of Renuga.
That mutual accountability is what kept them going when business slowed down or ideas stalled. Their growth also extended beyond internal collaboration. Exar was selected as Creative Consultants for Snapchat’s Southeast Asia expansion, where their role proved instrumental.
They helped onboard over 1,000 AR creators and trained more than 2,000 XR professionals across Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Singapore. They also led hands-on AR workshops, crafted retention strategies, and worked closely with Snapchat India to shape creator engagement in the region.
Since then, Exar has continued to help multinational brands across Southeast Asia boost their visibility and audience engagement, delivering interactive AR and VR experiences across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and brand websites.
What’s Next for Exar
Looking ahead, Eswaran and Renuga hope to grow Exar into more than just a creative agency. Their long-term vision is to build a media company that not only delivers cutting-edge AR, VR, and AI experiences, but also helps raise awareness and understanding of these technologies among everyday users.
Through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, they’ve anchored themselves to a piece of advice once shared by someone close:
“Life has a lot of junctions, but you need to go to the junction to make the next decision.”
Their message to young creators and tech dreamers? Start with what you have.
From late-night experiments with virtual jewellery to becoming pioneers in Asia’s AR scene, the couple has shown that with persistence, creativity, and a willingness to move forward, even without all the answers, you can turn a small idea into something extraordinary.
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