SAMY Alliance Buys Content Lab + Gets $310M PE Buyout

RockWater Roundup

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

Today we discuss SAMY Alliance’s acquisition of Content Lab, including the deal details, strategic rationale including growth of social commerce offerings, SAMY’s 4 other agency acqusitions, and implications of SAMY’s just-announced majority buyout by PE shop Bridgepoint.

Let’s break it down…

————

–TARGET: Content Lab–

Overview

• TikTok-focused mktg agency and shop partner
• Known for “user-centric, data-driven content creation”
• Founded 2020 by Allen Loh (CEO), Amy Xie, and Zach Thorne
• 60+ team members across 9 countries
• HQ in Irvine, CA

Business Lines

• Full service influencer marketing
• UGC via audience data and trends
• Talent management

Company Highlights

• 100 clients across 20 countries
• 10k+ network creators / influencers
• 5k+ creator collabs, 300 campaigns, 10k vids created, 1B+ views
• Strong presence in US and APAC, specifically China
• Notable Clients: Genshin Impact, Ulike, TikTok 

–BUYER: SAMY Alliance–

Overview

• Digital-first marketing and communications network of 600 partners and 10 acquired agencies
• Goal = be global leader in Social Media Marketing via tech, data, creativity
• Founded 2012 by Juan Andres Elhazaz (CEO), Patricia Ratia García-Oliveros, and Marta Nicolas
• Majority-owned by PE firm Bridgepoint (fka Natwest)
• HQ in Madrid, Spain
• 300+ members on LinkedIn 

Company Highlights

• 15 global offices, team in 40 different countries
• 75% of revenue from global markets 
• Notable Clients: L’Oreal, IKEA, Microsoft, Netflix, other F500 companies

Business Lines

• Market data, research, strategy
• Influencer marketing
• Paid media
• PR & Communications
• Creative management, content production, digital production

Capital Markets History

• 2012: $4M early F&F round
• 2018: $1.6M raised from Sabadell VC, Inveready Asset Management
• 2023: $6M growth investment from PE firm Bridgepoint Group for 12.75%
  • Bridgepoint: $69B AUM, 48 investments TTM, $11.3B dry powder
• 2025: LBO by Bridgepoint at $310M valuation

M&A History

• Content Lab – Social agency (2025, US  / APAC)
• MDS Digital – Experiential marketer (2024, Colombia)
• Kurio – Social media strategy (2024, Finland)
• Nobox Marketing – Social creative agency (2022, US) 
• Share Creative – Strategy and marketing agency (2020, UK) 

–DEAL DETAILS–

Overview

• No deal details disclosed
• Announced 1.22.25

Post Deal Ops

• Not disclosed
  

Strategic Rationale

• Add capabilities in data-driven IM, UGC, and content production to SAMY’s agency portfolio.
• Improve service offerings for social commerce and emerging platforms.
• Improve localized and regional content strategies for SAMY’s clients.
• Expand teams / ops in US and APAC, specifically China.
• Helps SAMY exceed €100M / yr revenue. Makes more attractive to investors and potential acquires.

–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–

• Bridgepoint just bought a majority stake in SAMY. Just yesterday it was announced that Bridgepoint did a 100% buyout of SAMY, which follows the PE shop’s 2023 minority investment. Press releases report the new focus is to enhance its tech platform, expand to new geos and client verticals, and continue “selective M&A strategy”. Further, that the company targets double-digit revenue growth, and bolstering its presence in key markets like Europe, Mexico, and the US in 2025. I bet there’s still an equity pool for leadership and key team members, but this is definitely a strong signal that Bridgepoint believes in the growth AND exit potential of SAMY, and likely wants majority control to direct the outcome.
  

• Part of M&A consolidation trend in digital agency space. SAMY is similar to other challenger ad networks like Stagwell, Acceleration Group of Companies, Croud, New Engen, Brave Bison, 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). SAMY wasn’t on our radar previously, but it’s definitely one to watch. And now with Bridgepoint having a control position, we expect more M&A to follow at a more rapid pace to drive up valuation and prep for future exit.

• Aligning with growth of social commerce. SAMY is focused on riding the growth wave of the $7 trillion social commerce industry, and Content Lab acquisition bolsters their services and client-reach. I was actually just in Venice, CA yesterday for SoCom, the 1st Social commerce conference, moderating a panel of C-suites on their social commerce strategy. It’s a growing space as brand marketers seek to leverage tools from social platforms / retailers / affiliate platforms / more to combine (1) top-of-funnel digital awareness campaigns, with (2) bottom-funnel conversion of fans and audiences into paying customers. Agencies that specialize in this space are in growing demand as consumer behavior and $$ shifts online, and specifically into social environments. But, the social commerce space is facing some key challenges, from the TikTok potential ban to tariffs on US imports, which could have a major impact on low-priced goods that dominate today’s social commerce landscape. The long term macro bet feels strong, but there’s definitely headwinds and uncertainty in the immediate future that business owners and investors need to manage carefully as they deploy growth capital and / or company bets.

• Rise of UGC demand. UGC agency services are growing quickly because audiences want content that doesn’t feel like traditional ads. Our RockWater team is seeing this first hand – last year we advised a UGC platform called Bounty on its sale to gen.video (deal announcement).

• Managing TikTok existential risk. TikTok faces an uncertain future based on the US Supreme Court ruling, and the formal ban is delayed a couple more months due to Trump’s January executive order. Curious how the uncertainty around the platform’s future in the US impacted deal price and terms in the final negotiation. Likely a bunch of last minute scrambling between the deal teams of both sides. I bet SAMY also sees an opportunity to reposition Content Labs’ TT services to other platforms as social commerce tools and strategies ramp up elsewhere.

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

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