Brave Bison Buys The Fifth for £7.6M // Rise of UK Social & IM Agency M&A

April 18, 2025 by Chris Erwin

RockWater Roundup

M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.

Today we discuss Brave Bison’s acquisition of The Fifth, a social marketing and influencer ad agency. We analyze the deal details including valuation multiples and consideration mix, strategic rationale, and Brave Bison’s historical growth through M&A.

Let’s break it down…

————

–TARGET: The Fifth–

Overview

Provides creator campaigns, influencer marketing and social strategy for brands
Clients include YouTube, Disney+, Fox Entertainment
Founded 2019 by Oliver Lewis (CEO)
86 associated members on LinkedIn
Based in London, UK

Company Highlights

2024 Creativepool People’s Choice Winner
2023 Creator Awards Agency of the Year
2023 Global Influencer Marketing Awards Gold Winner
Talent partners include Amelia Dimoldenberg, Maya Jama, and Reggie Yates

Business Lines

Offers services in strategy, creative, creator / IM, UGC, measurement, and paid media

Financials

2024 June TTM Revenue: £6.2M (per MarketWatch)

Capital Markets History

–TARGET OWNER: News UK–

Overview

Portfolio of news, opinion, and broadcasting business
Wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp
40M+ impressions per month
Based in London, UK
Founded in 1981

Newsbrands

Newspaper brands: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, and The TLS
Broadcast brands: talkSPORT, Times Radio, Talk and Virgin Radio UK

Financials

(Jun ‘24 TTM, via Pitchbook)

Revenue: £97.9M
EBIT: £705K
C&CE: £24.7M
Total Debt: £185.9M

–BUYER: Brave Bison–

Overview

Provides digital media, influencer marketing, and social media agency services
Led by CEO Oli Green and Chief Growth Officer Theo Green
Founded in 2011 as Rightster by Charlie Muirhead
Clients include P&G, NBC, PGA, Hearst, New Balance
Over 200 associated members on LinkedIn
HQ in London; office in Singapore

Stock Price

(AIM: BBSN, via stockanalysis.com, $1.33 = £1)

£2.50 as of 4.16.25
Down -0.4% MoM
Down -0.4% YoY
Up +22% YTD

Financials

(via public filings and stockanalysis.com, $1.33 = £1)

FY 2024 Revenue: £32.8M
FY 2024 EBITDA: £2.5M
FY 2024 Adj EBITDA: £4.5M (add backs: acquisition and restructuring costs, share-based comp)
-8% YoY Gross Revenue Growth
2% YoY Net Revenue Growth
65% Gross Margin
5% YoY EBITDA Growth
7.6% EBITDA Margin
14% Adj EBITDA Margin
90% of revenue coming from UK and Europe
2025 Management Guidance: Exceed current mkt expectations for revenue and underlying profitability for FY25

Valuation

(via public filings and stockanalysis.com, $1.33 = £1)

Mkt Cap: £32.9M
C&CE: £7.6M
Total Debt: £1.9M
Enterprise Value: £27.2M
0.8x 2024 Revenue Multiple
9.3x 2024 EBITDA Multiple

Company Highlights

2025 Northern Digital Award winner in Best Digital Campaign (Retail and B2B), and Social Media Agency of the Year
Shortlisted for 2025 Performance Marketing Awards
Delivered 155M in-tournament views for the Australian Open Tournament
SocialChain generated £11 million in revenues, 60% YoY growth

Business Model by Agency Brand

Social Chain: social and influencer marketing
Engage: sports and entertainment consultancy
Brave Bison: Paid, organic, technology

Capital Markets History

3rd acquisition of 2025
Acquisition History (via Pitchbook):

Company Name	Deal Date	Deal Size	Description
The Fifth	April–25	$9.7M	Influencer Marketing
Builtvisible	Mar-25	$4.50ME	Digital Marketer
Engage Digital Partners	Feb-25	$13.09ME	Sports Marketer
The Social Chain	Feb-23	$21.10M	Social Media Marketer
Best Response Media	Apr-22	$1.43M	Digital Marketer
Greenlight Digital	Aug-21	N/A	Digital Marketer
The Hook Group	Apr-20	$0.25M	Social Media Marketer

In 2019, Philippa Norridge (BraveBison CFO), along with Oliver and Theo Green, invested into Brave Bison. After the investment, they joined as executives in 2020
IPO’d in 2013 for $33M and issued 34M shares

–DEAL DETAILS–

Overview

Announced 4.10.25
£7.6M ($10M) total consideration

Deal Structure Summary

£1M equity (40M shares = 3.1% equity stake)
£575K cash
25% profit share over 3 yrs, up to £6M
Total potential value = £7.575M
Deal Consideration mix = 8% cash / 13% equity / 79% earnout

Valuation

1.2x revenue (total consideration potential)
0.25x revenue (upfront consideration)

Post-Deal Operations

Oliver Lewis to continue as CEO of The Fifth, charged with driving growth across new markets and verticals
The Fifth will be integrated into SocialChain, BB’s social media advertising and IM arm
News UK to enter into a strategic partnership with Brave Bison, and will remain a key client of The Fifth

Strategic Rationale

Enhance Social Chain’s capabilities in influencer strategy, creator partnerships, content production, and influencer measurement.
Lead the growth of new influencer-powered marketing solutions at the intersection of AI, social commerce and search.
Supports recently launched StrategyChain, a social strategy service for brands
Adds new talent to Social Chain’s roster

–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–

Brave Bison has a track record of adding new capabilities through M&A. Examples include expanding into sports marketing by acquiring Engage in 2025, and strengthening social offerings by acquiring SocialChain in 2023. The Fifth acquisition builds on SocialChain because it immediately enhances their ability to offer broader social marketing services. The Fifth brings creative, strategic, and cultural expertise to deliver higher-impact campaigns for top-tier clients. Integrating The Fifth into SocialChain boosts Brave Bison’s competitive edge as a full-service digital and social marketing agency.

News UK to become a top shareholder in Brave Bison as part of deal. News UK is receiving equity in Brave Bison, alongside cash and a revenue share as part of the deal. The structure preserves a key client relationship for The Fifth through an ongoing commercial partnership with News UK. With News UK becoming a meaningful 3.1% shareholder, they’re also incentivized to support The Fifth’s continued growth under Brave Bison’s ownership.

This deal is another datapoint in M&A consolidation amongst digital agencies. Brave Bison is similar to other challenger ad networks like Stagwell, Acceleration Group of Companies, Croud, New Engen, SAMY Alliance, and more. All are growing quickly through M&A, and are also focused on entering new geos through dealmaking (we’ve written about many of this M&A activity on our deal blog). We’re seeing strong global consolidation across all geo territories, such as Publicis’ recent acquisition of BR Media in LATAM and Stagwell’s acquisition of Create.Group in MENA.

UK M&A activity is increasing. The acquisition of The Fifth by Brave Bison adds to a broader wave of UK-based consolidation in the marketing services space. In 2024, private equity firm ECI Partners took a stake in London-based Croud to fuel its own M&A roll-up strategy, while Whalar acquired London-based creator talent agency Sixteenth to strengthen its positioning in the influencer economy. Similar to the US, the UK influencer and social agency market is quickly consolidating. Further, we’re also seeing UK agencies expanding into the US as well, with Croud’s acquisition of Atlanta-based Vert Digital. It’s likely that Brave Bison is looking in other western territories like the US and other Euro countries for its next acquisition, and we know that 2 of Brave Bison’s 7 total M&A deals also included Germany and Denmark.

Increase in Net Revenue Growth, Decline in Gross Revenue Growth. In 2024, Brave Bison’s gross revenue declined 8% from £35.7M to £32.8M. But, the company’s net revenue grew 2% due to a 22% decrease in COGS, as a result of “operational efficiencies” per the annual report. Curious what those details are – could be a mix of higher fees / rate card, lower direct delivery costs, and TBD what else. The company reports the decline in revenue growth is due to clients putting advertising budgets on hold due to macroeconomic factors.

Brave Bison’s Leadership Drove Stronger Financial Performance Since Taking the Helm in 2020. Brave Bison’s current leadership worked together at Tangent, a digital consultancy and UX design/research company prior to joining Brave Bison. In 2019, the team made a strategic investment in Brave Bison and joined the company as executives in 2020. Since 2020, net revenue has increased 5.3x and Adj. EBITDA margins have grown from zero to 21%.

I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.

DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris @ wearerockwater dot com