Welcome to our inaugural ‘Bite-sized Bottom Line’.

Another “what’s ahead in M&A?” prediction piece? Not really our thing. However, already grabbing headlines in 2025’s first week: Later’s $250m acquisition of Mavely. Press Release

Heard of either? 2024’s creator economy M&A momentum continues into 2025, with an expected acceleration. The question to us, is more the direction of travel as influencer marketing isn’t developing on straight lines and the transformation of how brands and communities interact to drive good old-fashioned sales (aka “GMV”) is hard to predict.

2024 saw over 150 influencer M&A deals with more than $1.7b in capital invested. This is unquestionably one part of the marketing ecosystem where tech+human fusion is everything, accelerated by AI content automation, and fuelling more than just the pace of change; it is setting-up real and lasting disruption. Notable transactions including:

  • Stagwell’s acquisition of Leaders (agency) Press Release
  • Publicis’s acquisition of Influential (one of the world’s largest influencer platforms) Press Release
  • Wasserman’s acquisition of Long Haul (agency) Press Release

Mavrck and Later merged only 12 months ago to become Later, and within the following 12 months the merged business has delivered a deal that would make the eyes of the ‘Networks’ water.

Mavrck was an award-winning influencer marketing solution that had received $120m in investment from Summit Partners in late 2021. It then raised a further $135m to buy Later in Q2 2022, which was a leading social media management platform and link-in-bio tool. Dangerous to directly equate headcount to impact in technology-enabled businesses, but it now has 1,500 employees globally so this is a serious organisation. Press Release

Most M&A commentary focuses on the money, but this is about much more than that. This transaction highlights the rapid shake-up of the global agency-led marketing status quo and just how far that disruption might go.

Combining Later’s influencer technology and services with Mavely’s network of over 120,000 creators is ultimately about disintermediating the creator economy, allowing brands and influencers to support each other directly, going full circle to the pre-media world when word of mouth was marketing.

Acting as a digital matchmaker, its technology will enable influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance tracking all under one roof, serving over 8 million users and enterprise clients. An affiliate system boosts influencer income while giving brands clear insight into their marketing returns. AI-driven, data-backed insights help optimise brand-creator partnerships and lastly, but crucially important in an ever-homogenising society, its platform turns the influencer hierarchy on its head, levelling the playing field from niche enthusiasts to celebs given a fair shot at brand deals.

By streamlining the entire process from discovery to payout, Later is not just engaging in the social commerce revolution, it’s feeding it, promising a future where influence is both more accessible and more accountable.

What CMO or creator isn’t going to be interested? And where are the tens of thousands of global marketing agencies in this landscape? While Later primarily focuses on direct relationships between brands and influencers, it does also offer services that can support agencies, but this model is designed for disintermediation and so this is just Later being pragmatic. For now.

Our fortnightly ‘Bite-sized Bottom Line’ series explores the key issues shaping our ever-evolving market. Big and small stories alike, but all stories with ramifications that matter and should inform business and investment decisions.