Brave Bison, a media, marketing, and technology company built for the new era, today announces its fourth acquisition: of Social Chain, a market-leading social media and influencer marketing agency founded by Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, for over $20m.
Since its foundation in 2014, Manchester-based Social Chain has made waves in the industry. The agency has gone from building some of the biggest communities in social and disrupting the market, to becoming one of the leading social media agencies in the world. It now delivers stand-out social media and advertising campaigns for global brands including Amazon, TikTok, Arla, KFC and Apple Beats.
Brave Bison will preserve the Social Chain brand and Social Chain CEO Pete Metcalfe will join the Brave Bison leadership team, overseeing both Social Chain and the current Brave Bison Social & Influencer team.
The make-up of Social Chain and Brave Bison’s respective teams is similarly young and digitally native – approximately half of Social Chain’s people are 27 and under, as are over a quarter at Brave Bison – and there will be more opportunity for career development within the combined company.
Brave Bison has a unique, hybrid offering. It owns and manages social media channels to generate advertising revenue and provides digital advertising and technology services for global, blue-chip companies such as Panasonic, New Balance, Currys and Pfizer.
Social Chain will augment this further and enhance the client offering.
The business is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s market for growth companies. Since taking over its management, brothers Oli and Theo Green (31 and 28, in keeping with the youth and dynamism of the company), have taken the company from strength to strength, completing four acquisitions, spanning digital agencies, consultancies and social channels. They are also the company’s largest shareholders.
Oliver Green, chairman of Brave Bison, said: “We’ve long admired Social Chain, which we believe is among the world’s best regarded social media and influencer marketing brands, and we’re excited by the highly relevant clients it brings into our business. Social Chain has huge potential for growth within Brave Bison, taking the momentum Pete and the team have built up using Steven Bartlett’s platform. We’re delighted to be taking this big step forward as we continue to build a media, marketing and technology company for the new era.”
Theo Green, chief growth officer of Brave Bison, said: “We’re excited about what this deal will bring. It adds instant growth but will also trigger more as we take our enhanced offering to existing and new clients and expand our physical presence into North America and the Manchester tech and digital hub where Social Chain was born.”
Pete Metcalfe, CEO of Social Chain, said: “Joining with Brave Bison is a great move for us. This will only help to enhance our plans to grow the Social Chain proposition and build on our continued success. We are excited to work closely with like-minded people that align with our culture. It not only gives us the opportunity to build combined services for clients, we also have the chance to benefit from the clear momentum behind the Brave Bison business.”
Steven Bartlett, co-founder of Social Chain, who has since moved on from the business, lent his support to the deal, saying: “Social Chain was my first big success in business. It’s great to see two young entrepreneurial brothers building Brave Bison with the same energy Social Chain brings to the table. They should be a great fit.”
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