Challenger Groups Tracker

Challenger Groups Tracker – by Waypoint Partners

There is a cohort of ambitious, fast-growing agencies increasingly making waves in the marketing services world, collectively described as “challenger” groups. It’s a rapidly developing space and it can be hard to keep up with the pace of change including M&A activity, investment, and financial results.

Waypoint Partners has analysed this section of the agency world to provide the key headline stats at a glance. The challenger groups in the table below appear in order of size and with other key data to provide context. Waypoint has selected them as interesting businesses to watch based on a range of factors, including, but not limited to, the size and quality of investment received and the pace of acquisition to date or potential to acquire in the future. We will be updating this data regularly, so do check in to see how the picture changes throughout the year.

If you’d like to learn more, listen to a deep-dive edition of our Waypointers podcast telling you everything you need to know about the Challenger agencies, as well as in depth interviews with Michael Birkin, CEO of kyu, and Luke Smith, CEO of Croud.


Company	Headcount	Year Founded	HQ (Country)	CEO / Exec Chair	Ownership	Investment Milestones	Notable Acquisitions (2021 to date)
Croud	500 – 1k	2011	London, UK	Luke Smith	PE-backed: LDC	Nov 19: Secured £30m minority investment from LDC	3
Brainlabs	500 – 1k	2012	London, UK	Daniel Gilbert	PE-backed: Falfurrias Capital Partners	Sep 23: Major investment from Falfurrias Capital Partners Mar 19: Livingbridge acquired a minority stake	7
Known	<500	2020*	New York, US	Kern Schireson	PE-backed: ICG	*Formerly Schireson Associates, acquired Stun Creative & Blackbird in 2020 with funding from ICG to form Known	0
Sideshow	500 – 1k	2010	London, UK	Tony Hill	PE-backed: Waterland	Mar 21: Waterland Private Equity acquired a stake	7
MERGE	500-1k	2004	Chicago, US	Patrick Venetucci	PE-backed: Keystone Capital	Dec 18: Keystone Capital announced partnership with MERGE	4
Power Digital	500-1k	2012	San Diego, US	Jeff Mason	PE-backed: Court Square	Mar 22: Received investment from Court Square Capital Partners Jan 21: Avante Capital Partners completed a unitranche debt investment in Power Digital Apr 19: Received investment from Periscope Equity	3
iO Group	1k- 5k	2005	Herentals, Belgium	Pieter Janssens	PE-backed: Waterland	Dec 18: Received investment from Waterland Private Equity	16
Dept	1k-5k	2016	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Dimi Albers	PE-backed: Carlyle	Dec 19: Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Dept from Waterland Private Equity	12
Bounteous	1k-5k	2003	Denver, US	Keith Schwartz	PE-backed: New Mountain Capital	Aug 21: New Mountain Capital acquires a stake in Bounteous from Mountaingate Capital	2
PMG Worldwide	1k-5k	2010	Fort Worth, US	George Popstefanov	Private	n.a.	2
S4 Capital	5k-10k	2018	London, UK	Sir Martin Sorrell	Public	Jan 22: Launched S4S Ventures, a venture capital fund with Stanhope Capital Group Dec 16: Lists on the LSE	15
Brandtech Group	5k-10k	2015	New York, US	David Jones	Series B Funding: Various	Jun 23: Acquires Jellyfish, with Jellyfish investor Fimalac rolling into the new structure Sep 21: Reportedly entered talks with banks about $3bn US float Jan 21: Raised $260m in Series B which valued the company at $1.36bn	4
Stagwell	11k	2015	New York, US	Mark Penn	Public	May 23: $150m share repurchase scheme from Carlyle’s AlpInvest Partners. Upon completion, AlpInvest Partners will no longer be an investor in Stagwell. Apr 23: Acquisition of Huskies Aug 21: The merger of MDC and Stagwell formerly completed	22
Kyu	1k-5k	2014	New York, US	Michael Birkin	Hakuhodo	n.a. kyu is the strategic operating unit of Hakuhodo DY Holdings created in 2014 to invest in all forms of creativity, innovation, and international growth	5

Research by Waypoint Partners

Notes
– Sources include S&P Capital IQ, LinkedIn and company websites
– This is a snapshot of the cohort, not an exhaustive list
– Last updated 01 February 2024

“This data gathered by Waypoint Partners provides a helpful snapshot of a highly active and interesting cohort of challengers whose emergence as acquirer groups is causing significant disruption in the industry. A couple of years ago, owners were intrigued by the management consultancies who were building their presence in the space and acquiring accordingly – now we’ve seen a notable shift in attention amongst agency owners looking for new and exciting platforms to accelerate their next phase of growth.”

MATT LACEY

PARTNER