Introduction
We’re delighted to announce that Croud has acquired global social media agency, Born Social, strengthening our brand and creative offering. The news marks Croud’s third acquisition following VERB Brands in November 2021, and impakt advisors in December 2021.
Founded in 2012, Born Social provides specialist strategy, creative, media, management and influencer services to social-first brands such as Nando’s, Guinness, Primark, Uber, Seedlip and Jägermeister.
Strength in brand and creative
Born Social’s social and brand advertising expertise will bolster Croud’s existing creative and social offering, providing new and existing clients with the best-in-class services across the entire digital ecosystem. In addition, Born Social’s proprietary measurement and effectiveness tool, Caliper, will complement Croud’s growing data solutions offering by helping clients better articulate the value social media provides for their business, going beyond surface measures like followers, engagement and ROAS.
Born Social will continue trading under its brand name but now ‘powered by Croud’, and the leadership team will stay on in their current capacity, to run the business. As part of the acquisition, Born Social will be distributing a monetary bonus to all full-time and part-time employees.
Luke Smith, co-founder and CEO at Croud, said of the announcement:
"This is a big step for us into the world of brand advertising and creative. Our plan is to bring our two worlds together with this acquisition, turbo-charging our creative offering and enhancing our creative services in the future. What we loved about Born Social was that we like and respect the management team and that they stand for something - the work that’s gone into achieving B-Corp status shows commitment to being a better business. Their appetite for the Croudie network, their shared vision for how that, plus Croud’s global reach, can help take them into new markets, as well as the crossover of our client portfolios, NPS scores, and cultures, were all major factors that helped seal this deal.
"We’ve taken our time on the acquisition front, allowing us time to get to know and integrate the VERB and impakt businesses. We’re now ready to add even more firepower to the group with the addition of the impressive team at Born Social. Despite the challenges our industry is going through at the moment, Croud is staying true to our vision and strategy to add smart, like-minded, innovative businesses to our group".
Combining innovative models
With the support of its private equity partner LDC, Croud continues to build its group of global businesses. With the addition of Born Social’s UK and European workforce, its global footprint now exceeds 450 people, spanning across the UK, the US, Europe and MENA.
Both Croud and Born Social have featured in Campaign’s Best Places to Work for the last three years running. Both businesses also operate remote-working models, with Born Social’s European workforce completely remote and Croud’s 2,500+ strong global network of on-demand digital experts.
Huge thanks and congrats to Croud’s M&A team, Amit Khanna and Tara Pierce, for leading the deal, as well as Croud’s legal advisors DWF and in particular Alexis Karim, and financial and tax advisors Grant Thornton. On the Born Social side, the deal was supported by sell-side advisor Matt Lacey at Waypoint Partners, as well as lawyers Lewis Silkin.
