Receive monthly tips on content marketing, social media marketing and how to improve your companys web presence. Its largest purchase to date was 2019's $4 billion, 60% stake in market-research firm Kantar, also a former WPP property. TCVs blog is robust and updated regularly, which is of course easier for a firm of its size. From a UX perspective, the navigation is well-structured, making it easy to find the blog, podcasts, and subscribe to their newsletter. In mid-2021, Blackstone joined GTCR to invest in Simpli.fi at a $1.5 billion valuation. Analysts consider Ansira to be a prime M&A target because it's growing and nearing the end of the traditional three-to-five year investment cycle. Mountaingate is a derivative of PE predecessor KRG, whose co-founder Bruce Rogers entered the ad fray in the 2000s by investing in agencies like Olson and Ansira, which sold to ICF and Advent International. Exhibit A: this piece on Chases investment in tackling the racial wealth gap. Engaging headlines and pieces written by a mix of marketing and venture partners, provide multiple perspectives. Permira said it would help Seismic significantly increase its M&A activity. The blog also provides a fantastic user experience by using filters and tagging for easy search. Cookies are going away, consumers deserve choice and marketers want to drive one-to-one personalisation using quality data safely, he said. While early stage startups may not be ready to hire an experienced marketing team, they can tap into expertise with support from one or more agency partners. "Previously, these types of businesses were venture-backed, but the size of the opportunity has grown such that large buyout firms are now looking hard at this space," Freeman said. It recently moved into advertising, with its acquisition and sale of e-commerce company Magento and its role leading $170 million in Series G fundraising for marketing software platform Seismic at a $3 billion valuation in August. Before the startup begins their marketing efforts in earnest, they need to understand whos going to be using the product. Which investors participated in the most funding rounds within this hub? It bought healthcare agency 21Grams, payment firm Discern Health, influencer agency Starpower, and, in January, medical tech companies Swoop and IPM.ai. The firms GPs write much of the content; in fact, the team doesnt include a single marketing hire. Properties: Engine, MediaAlpha, Market Performance Group. Later in 2021, it hired investment bank Lazard to help sell Engine's UK operations. With $1.6 billion in assets as of 2021, Schiff said Innovatus would spend aggressively to expand its presence in the ad industry. It is a fragmented market, poised for consolidation and organic growth. The site also contains an informative FAQ section that invites transparency into their investment decisions and strategy. This angle to content production allows the firm to spend less time brainstorming article topics. Angel, Fund of Funds, Venture Capital), Median number of investments made by investors in this hub, Median number of lead investments made by investors in this hub, Announced Date: Date the acquisition was announced, Acquirer Name: Name of the acquiring organization, Transaction Name: Auto-generated name of transaction (e.g. Learn how your comment data is processed. CI Capital Partners long focused on healthcare and logistics but has big ad industry M&A plans. For example, the VC firm First Round Capital puts out a regular publication, First Round Review, which offers insightful interviews and case studies with founders and executives from tech startups. They can then build out SEO-optimized landing pages geared around key terms. Perhaps the best recent example of this is Quibi, the mobile-first streaming service launched by media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. NFXs content hub, called the Founders Library, is featured directly on the firms. It moved into marketing with a 2019 investment in healthcare-focused Real Chemistry, formerly W2O Group. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join thousands of video and CTV advertising professionals by signing up to our newsletter. But they may still be months away from building out a fully fledged marketing team, and the founders rarely have the time to dedicate to fleshing out an in-depth marketing strategy. They're also competing with new ad networks like S4 Capital, Stagwell Group, and You & Mr. Jones for tech companies, said Jay MacDonald, CEO of Digital Capital Advisors. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); If you have a story idea, please get in touch. It has only exited one investment NFL events company On Location Experiences, which it sold to Endeavor and hasn't replaced any CEOs. They built their content hub, the Green Room for the other 98%.. But with the ad tech ecosystem going through a period of consolidation and media companies facing challenging circumstances fighting for ad dollars, start ups will have to stand out to attract investment. A portion of the articles summarize longer-form pieces previously published by business media outlets such as Harvard Business Review. UK giant Permira has invested in a wide range of companies over the past 35 years, from Doc Martens to Ancestry.com. I look for companies which have a unique selling point, and which have the potential to dominate the space theyre in, he said. Your agencys SEO and persona research can also be used to great advantage to build out a strong content marketing strategy. investors of these companies, their management team, and recent news are also included. This is advantageous as both users and search engines love fresh content. In 2021, the largest and most successful venture capital firms are competing for deal flow not only amongst each other, but with other financial institutions, such as private equity, public equity, and debt funds. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider How much aggregate funding have these organizations raised over time? Learn why HARO, PR campaigns, guest blogging, research reports, expert round-ups, and infographics are some of our favorite strategies for building backlinksand why pay to play backlink strategies often backfire. More Than an Advertising Deal: The Likely Ramifications of the Netflix-Microsoft Deal, The Buy-Side View: Q&A with Spark Foundrys Rebecca Candeland, The WIR: Broadcaster Earnings Hint at Slowing TV Ad Revenues, WFA Warns of Worst Ever Talent Crisis, and Seedtag Raises Over $250 Million, The Industry Reacts to Googles Crumbling Cookie Timeline. Quibi managed to raise nearly $2 billion before launching, thanks in large part to Katzenbergs reputation. No spam. Properties: Acceleration Group, Relevate Health Group. In 2017, GTCR also acquired ad targeting platform Simpli.fi, which has since grown through M&A deals like January's $100 million purchase of software company Advantage Advertising. It will typically also include a competitive research phase: The agency will use analytics tools to find the most popular content in the companys industry and evaluate the factors that make it work. So how can you help them build brand awareness and industry momentum in the meantime? What's the most common final funding type when companies get acquired? Spearad, his most recent investment, is building an OTT-specific ad server, which Schultheiss says makes it unique. What are their values, and what problem will be solved by the product? Since then, Pyne and his partners have acquired 21 primarily sports-focused properties like ad agency Two Circles and sponsorship firm TRM Partners. Their podcasts focus on executable growth hacks, like this episode discussing brand building. He said, The scale of incumbents will limit the development of some start-ups, and complicate their paths to maturity while also limiting the number of buyers available down the road. The firm knows their audience well and focuses on topics that are hyper relevant to them. CI entered the ad industry in 2016, investing in packaged-goods specialty firm Impact Sales, digital consultancy Hero Digital, and events agency PRA. Austin's Vista Equity Partners, one of the top 10 global PE firms, made a big splash in 2015 by acquiring a majority stake in ad-buying software company Mediaocean, then valued at $720 million. The content itself is laser focused on factors affecting marketplaces and marketplace dynamics. Aryeh Bourkoff, CEO of Liontree, a global investment firm specialising in media, technology, and telecommunications whose investments have included fuboTV and Ocean Outdoor, was more sceptical about the opportunities for streaming services. Theyll also take a deep dive into what their specific competitors are doing in content marketing, and what your portfolio company can do to get ahead of them. There is a real opportunity for the next generation of leaders right now., Schultheiss agreed that there is room for innovation in the identity space, though he added it could be tough for newer companies to compete. Eric Franchi, operating partner at MathCapital, an ad tech focussed early-stage venture capital firm whose investments include ID5 and IRIS.TV, said he is particularly interested in data and platforms for the post-privacy era in marketing. New Mountain, founded in 1999 by Goldman Sachs and Forstmann Little vet Steven Klinsky, primarily invests in healthcare, software, and financial services companies. NEAs blog focuses on practical matters and answers founders questions across all areas of the business: sales, marketing, design, operations, and talent. Savvy VCs know that competition for deal flow is fierce. Series A, Seed, Private Equity), Average of the Crunchbase Ranks of the organizations in this hub, Organization Name: Name of the Organization, Total Funding Amount: Total amount raised across all funding rounds, CB Rank (Organization): Algorithmic rank assigned to the top 100,000 most active Organizations, Trend Score (30 Days): Movement in Rank over the last 30 days using a score from -10 to 10, Total number of funding rounds associated with this hub, Total funding amount raised across all funding rounds, Total number of acquisitions made by organizations in the hub, Announced Date: Date that the Funding Round was publicly announced, Organization Name: Name of the organization that got funded, Transaction Name: Auto-generated name of transaction (e.g. Partner David Abrutyn said Bruin thinks more long-term than most PE firms. Properties: VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail. Properties: Bounteous, Tinuiti, Real Chemistry. The agencies, for their part, are looking to PE firms to expand, Nicholls said. It's also acquired performance marketing agency Wpromote, audio company Ad Results Media, and talent agency Excel Sports Marketing, whose clients have included Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter. Michael Schultheiss, CEO of Leverage Invest & Consult, a venture capital firm, said hes as interested in the people founding the company as he is in the company itself. This signals the importance of content marketing to their overall deal sourcing strategy. Then you can turn profitable within a year of going to market, on a moderate basis.. Backstage is transparent in their selectivity, mentioning they invest in less than 2%of all companies they see. Bruin Capital, formerly Bruin Sports Capital, was established in 2015 by consulting veteran George Pyne, who was formerly president of talent management giant IMG. But investment in media and advertising startups hasnt completely dried up. Tom Newman and Michael Kelly of advisory firm KNV, who arranged the sale of software company ColSpace to Mediaocean, predicted that Vista would continue investing in marketing services. But obviously its vital that the business itself has legs. For example, this podcast on unlocking disruptive power for your marketplace. But it quickly snapped up three ad agencies in the first three months of 2021. Stephen Master, principal at PE firm GTCR, said most PE firms still don't understand the ad business. An Advent representative said the firm does not comment on speculation. Real Chemistry has been on an M&A spree, reporting $350 million in revenue last year while many networks struggled. Bain has made big investments in the marketing industry such as Japanese agency network ADK Holdings, which it acquired from WPP in 2017. In the coming few years we expect the consumption of TV and film content to continue growth, which now has further been sparked by Covid-19, he said. But once youve added a promising startup to your portfolio, you also need help to maximize the potential of that company so that you can generate a high ROI on your investment. Mountaingate exited three of its most successful investments, healthcare-focused PR and marketing network Real Chemistry and digital agencies Tinuiti and Bounteous, in the past three years. Two Circles had been part of WPP, which also led Bruin's initial $250 million investment round. Discretion is guaranteed. Traditional support investor support often involves help with mapping out a legal and financial structure, and with sourcing the right engineering talent to bring your portfolio companies products to the next level. Schultheiss says having an existing relationship with a businesss founders makes for a smoother partnership. Were early-stage, sector-specialized venture investors focused on building value for the digital future by investing in advertising, marketing, and media B2B technology companies. She has worked as a freelance journalist for media publications and managed inbound marketing and content strategy for corporate and nonprofit clients for more than a decade. But now you can just use a cloud system, so you can get going quite quickly, but that also puts the pressure on you as a startup to turn a profit quickly., So Im looking for targets that are well connected and have potential clients already, as well as having a concept which could see them become a dominant player in their specific niche, said Schultheiss. Organizations need partners that can easily adapt to changehere are some ways that we embrace agility in our marketing agency. While the startup founders may discuss this in their funding dek, it can be useful to bring in an outside agency to conduct in-depth buyer persona research, which may involve external research, customer interviews, and even surveys to provide a clear map of the different types of audiences they intend to serve. Hiring an agency to map out a keyword matrix can help your startup team uncover hundreds of opportunities for relevant search terms that can help prospects find them. The New York firm spent more than $700 million after the pandemic to acquire Huntsworth, a network of agencies in the UK and US that helps pharmaceutical and biotech companies plan product development, organize PR strategies and events, and market medicines to US consumers. Reidy, who also held top roles at MediaLink, Publicis, IPG, and Bain, said CI wants to build a marketing services platform company that can work with both agencies and CMOs. Chicago-based GTCR, with $15 billion in assets, entered the marketing and communications field in 2014, when it acquired PR software giant Cision, which it later took public and sold to Platinum Equity. In 2019, PE invested an estimated $57 billion in marketing and tech companies, and the percentage of related deals backed by PE has more than doubled over the past five years, to 42%. Investing in future-focused, technology-first businesses transforming the digital realm. In December, it merged Relevate Health Group with digital agency Arcteric and acquired a majority stake in performance agency Acceleration Partners, which quickly snapped up two properties in the US and UK. Were excited about the opportunities here as well., Timo Argillander, managing partner and co-founder of IPR.VC, a venture investor focussed on media, said his firm is looking closely at the ad-supported streaming space. According to Toptals 2019 State of the Venture Capital Industry report, there were 1,816 VC firms in the US at the end of 2019 vs. only 798 in 2015. The plan should include an editorial calendar, an editorial process, and a set of metrics to be used in analyzing the ongoing success of the plan. In March, Bruin acquired outdoor ad tech company TGI Sport for around $100 million, and in June it picked up Irish sports betting company Oddschecker for about $215 million. Bain managing director Matt Freeman said the firm wants to make Kantar's core data and analytics business "a single source of truth for the CMO.". Where are VCs Investing in Media and Advertising? It also allows content creators to cherry pick the most valuable information as it pertains to their audience. Advent acquired a majority stake in Ansira in 2016 and funded its acquisition of properties like email agency BrightWave, targeting platform Local Biz Now, and CDK Global, which works with local auto dealers. The firm devotes an entire section of their site to resources. Early stage venture funding includes Series A and Series B rounds. With a substantial team, Insight is able to post content multiple times per month. That trend has intensified as the pandemic grounded traditional buyers like agency holding companies. In January, the firm acquired Bayard Advertising, an agency that creates recruitment campaigns and has clients including Expedia and Hanes. Find the right agency partners, and youll be on your way to 10x in no time. Content is divided into multiple categories, such as thought leadership, resources, andpodcasts and clearly tagged for easy discoverability. People like Paul Graham, Brad Feld, and Chris Sacca long ago figured out that thought leadership and value exchange via content marketing is a great way to build an audience and stand out in a competitive market. In the past, tech companies in particular required a lot of capital to get going, and so had a bit more breathing room when it came to turning profitable. Sign up for our newsletter to get the news, trends and strategies that advertising and media pros want to know delivered weekly to your inbox. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. But since being acquired, the firm has shifted focus to digital and nearly doubled its reported revenue to over $200 million. With trillions in capital, PE firms pose new competition for traditional ad holding companies like WPP and Omnicom for agencies and tech firms. Shamrock closed a $1 billion fund focused on media, entertainment, and marketing in June. homepage. Deep expertise in the innovations transforming advertising, marketing and media technology. It serves as an incredibly valuable way for First Round Capital to bring in potential portfolio companies, as well as talented recruits for those companies. But the firm's biggest advertising investment is digital agency network Dept, which it acquired from Waterland in 2020. Properties: Oddschecker, Two Circles, TGI Sport. When it comes to marketingfor both your VC firm and your portfolio companiesstarting with a strong strategy is crucial. The heady early days of ad tech, where a proliferation of new companies burst on to the scene funded by venture capital, are over. Since then, First Round has built out the definitive content hub for the industry, called The Review. But Bourkoff does see opportunities in audio, and in the video game space too, and startups in these spaces could attract investment. The bi-coastal firm was one of the first to prove that content marketing was a thing that deserved attention. And shortly after SuperAwesome, a kid-tech company which specialises in child-safe advertising, completed a $17 million funding round. They should be able to uncover a mix of high-value, harder-to-obtain terms and low hanging fruit to build out a long-term strategy for success. With more than $15 billion in assets, 43-year-old CD&R has invested heavily in energy, construction, and healthcare companies like SmileDirectClub. IAS proceeded to buy properties like Amino Payments before going public on the Nasdaq in June. Nicholls oversaw WPP's 2015 acquisition of Essence, a digital agency that analyzes Google's programmatic ads. The more quickly these terms can be turned into high-quality content, the betterlearn our strategies for building out SEO content at scale here. The consumer experience is extremely fragmented across devices, screens and formats, he said. The same year, it invested in Amazon agency Netrush and digital firm Dynamit while acquiring a significant minority stake in programmatic platform MediaAlpha at a $350 million valuation. Agencies typically have experience working across a variety of industries, and can offer out-of-the-box ideas for helping your portfolio companies grow. In October, Innovatus created a new holding company called Meet the People to combine its agency assets, with plans to spend $150 million in North America over the next two years. Weve seen a few recent examples of companies which fill a specific niche picking up investment. In late 2020, the firm hired former Ansira CEO Martin Reidy as a senior advisor to guide new acquisitions. The firm's highest-profile ad industry acquisition has been trade publication Adweek, which it bought from Beringer Capital in mid-2020. M&Ms Scorpio-N sees robust demand; shares top Nifty gainers, AdQuick.com Gains Momentum, Celebrates 2022 Midyear Milestones, OpenText Recognized as a Leader in 2022 Aspire CCM-CXM Leaderboard for Communications Experience Platform and AnyPrem CCM Software, Instagram's TikTok-like changes don't annoy advertisers like they do the Kardashians, Luxury Presence Announces New Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer, UPDATE 1-Bristol Myers profit beats estimates on resilient Revlimid sales, In Record First Half, Bynder Exceeds $100 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue, Sendinblue Names Yvan Saule As Chief Technology Officer, Meta Weighs Buying Eye-Tracking Glasses Startup AdHawk. I see quite a few big players already, and the exposure to rivals like Google is quite high, he said. Kathryn Hawkins is principal and chief content strategist of Eucalypt Media. It also added former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to its board. Within venture capital, the number of new firms has also increased drastically. Los Angeles-based Shamrock Capital, which famously owns the master recordings of Taylor Swift's first six albums, was another early entrant in the marketing sector, buying companies like ad agency Media Storm in the late 2000s. Some, like CI Capital and GTCR, have launched new groups dedicated to marketing. They can also provide the best-practice processes and structures that will make it simple to execute on their strategies as your portfolio teams ramp up their staffing over time. Founding partner David Schiff said the pandemic presented an opportunity to buy agencies that "didn't have the right capital structure or balance sheet to sustain themselves.". This makes the agencies behave more like software companies, making them more attractive to investors. The Progress Ventures approach is unique and specifically architected to provide tangible, quantifiable value to early-stage companies with a passion for innovation and explosive growth plans. Insights about top trending companies, startups, investments and M&A activities, notable. What's the investment trend over time for this hub? In 2021, Bain shook up Kantar's leadership and parted with top execs. Early-stage startups are in a unique position: By the time that youve decided theyre worth betting on, they likely have a strong vision and a solid technical leadership team in place. Argillander said content producers themselves are also tempting investment prospects, with the streaming wars pushing up the value of content. Vista then sold its stake in Mediaocean to CVC Capital Partners and TA Partners in August 2021. With around $469 million in total assets as of March 2020, Denver-based Mountaingate has been a springboard for small and growing agencies in recent years.