Private equity firm takes stake in media agency with £6.6m investment

Leeds-based private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP) has taken a minority stake in London-based independent performance media agency MC&C.

The £6.6m capital, KCP’s third investment from its latest fund, will be used to grow the firm, enabling key hires, further investment in operational technology, financing potential acquisitions, and acceleration of international growth.

The investment triggers the formation of a new MC&C Group comprising MC&C London, MC&C Muse and the newly-formed MC&C International.

KCP partner Mike Fell joins a new group executive board alongside founder Mike Colling, executive chairman of MC&C London Steve Booth, UK managing director Mark Jackson and deputy managing director Robin Trust.

Fell said:  “MC&C have a unique approach to media investment management that we believe can drive growth for any business.  This expertise simply doesn’t exist in the independent sector and we see huge potential for future growth. The management team has built a scalable model and an impressive leadership team and we look forward to supporting them on their next phase of growth.”

MC&C founder Mike Colling added:  “Our new model of performance creates the right blend of brand building, customer acquisition and sales, built on our unique data and analytics. As we are paid by delivering clients’ business outcomes, rather than media outputs, we are genuine growth partners.  Having proven the model, and the demand for our way of working, we’re ready to scale and our partnership with Key Capital Partners gives us the growth capital we need to deliver on this vision.”

Through its global clients, which include Unicef and WaterAid, MC&C has organically built a global portfolio which currently accounts for 7% of group revenues.

MC&C was advised by Clarity, an M&A advisor for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors.