Later Buys Mavely for $250M, Begins New Growth Cycle for Creator Economy
Hi readers,
We’re (kinda) back.
Regular M&A deal analysis will resume next Friday. Two recent deals stand out, and I may dig into one of these:
- This morning Jan 3 it was announced that Later acquired Mavely for $250M, with PE backing by Summit Partners. It’s a landmark deal combining technology and agency services across IM / affiliate marketing / social commerce
- On Dec 30 it was announced that Stagwell acquired Create.Group. The deal will help expand Stagwell’s agency services in the Middle East via 150+ new team members
There are many other creator economy and digital agency deals in the works. Expect more announcements soon.
Our RockWater team believes that 2025 will kick off a 2nd major growth cycle for our industry. Will build upon the market run from 2014 to 2022. Our insight is based on market data and ramping client advisory work.
That gets us excited.
But, there’s lots of learnings to be mindful of as we enter this new growth and capital markets environment. Since the summer of 2022, many of our industry’s builders and investors paid the price for capital allocation mistakes. Those mistakes caused large capital loss and low ROI for the bottom 80% of operators, and caused investors to pull back in a big way.
The correction needed to happen, but it was a painful re-set.
Nevertheless, landmark deals persisted, because the macro tailwinds behind digital agencies and creator economy are very strong. Therefore, premium operators earned premium financial performance and exits.
Overall, we can be better.
There doesn’t have to be such a large gap between the big winners and everybody else. We can build smarter, and better allocate capital. This will allow more founders, investors, and teams to earn wins over the next decade.
Let’s strive for that.
In support of that goal, RockWater will continue to share M&A and strategy learnings through our newsletter, LinkedIn posting, and advisory work.
Here’s to smarter capital allocation and better dealmaking in 2025. And long term success for our industry.
Other quick hits…
- Jan 11 we host an event for Dubai’s 1BF Summit, sign up here
- Feb 12 we host a BIG networking event in LA, sign up here
- I talked about 2025 capital markets trends with Business Insider here
- I wrote about the Soros / Hot Ones $83M sale here, including valuation multiples and emerging political buyers for creator economy
- Follow me on LinkedIn if you want M&A tips like this
…alright, I have to go prep for my 1BF capital markets prez next week, and record some video for LinkedIn. Feeling much FOMO in the B2B video game right now, time to ramp back up.
Onward,
Chris
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do financial and strategy advisory for digital agencies and creator economy. From M&A and fundraising to go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris @ wearerockwater dot com
