Multi-million pound merger sees the creation of new agency model offering media, advisory and venture funding
Media agency MNC has acquired Grwth, a pioneering consultancy and venture fund in the consumer brand space. The multi-million pound deal will create a dynamic one-stop shop for ambitious challenger brands that is built around proprietary market intelligence.
The combined group has a consistent trading history of £50M+ in annual billings and intends to actively deploy capital into scaleup brands through their venture fund.
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SubscribeThe deal will combine MNC’s proven track record among challenger brands with Grwth’s game-changing ‘operator first’ model. This will create a new paradigm that fuses media, advisory and venture funding into a differentiated proposition that meets clients’ real world growth challenges.
MNC CEO Luke Bristow said: “MNC has built some of the UK’s most enduring challenger brands including household names such as Moonpig, Confused.com, Wayfair, Trivago and Oak Furniture Land. Integrating Grwth allows us to merge 30 years of traditional media expertise with cutting-edge digital capabilities to solve mission-critical challenger brand problems in a holistic way. Grwth not only brings deep brand-side experience to the team, but a business based on rich data-powered insights.”
The combined business will retain the MNC name. Grwth co-founders Jake Higgins and Joe Benn join MNC as partners. Luke Bristow will lead the newly merged company as CEO, while founder Andrew McCutcheon continues as chairman. MNC veteran Daniel Fisk remains a director and board member.
MNC will be structured around a three-prong offering that draws on the strengths of both companies. These are:
MNC Media: Central to the business proposition, a full-funnel and channel agnostic media agency built for challenger brands. Its blend of brand-side experience and cutting-edge digital expertise is designed to unlock a multiplier effect when introduced into the marketing mix.
MNC Ventures: An investment fund, MNC Ventures is focused on unearthing and funding the most exciting Seed and Series A stage consumer businesses. The first portfolio investment was made in late 2024 with more announcements to follow this year.
MNC Club: MNC Club is an advisory service that matches brands with the best suited creative and technical agency partners across the marketing spectrum. A proven concept, MNC Club has already enabled over 300+ challenger brands to find the right partner.
MNC partner Jake Higgins said: “Our integrated approach across Media, Ventures and Club gives us unique market intelligence – when innovative marketing strategies or tactics emerge in UK consumer brands, it is immediately on our radar.
“This also creates a fluid ecosystem where brands can seamlessly access our full spectrum of services: from our specialist networks to strategic media expertise, or venture funding when they’re ready to scale.”
In terms of target market, MNC sees ‘challenger’ as a mindset rather than a definition of size. Typically the businesses it works with have £5m-£200m in revenue, and are in fast growth, says Bristow.
“Across MNC and Grwth, we are already working with the next wave of challenger brands including the likes of Beauty Pie, Wealthify, TALA clothing and coffee brand GRIND. Going forward, the overarching ambition is to become an authoritative thought leader in the challenger brand space. We want MNC to be synonymous with innovative, digitally-powered businesses.”
