News
LDC exits Croud to ECI Partners following remarkable growth journey
31 Oct 2024
LDC, the private equity investor which is part of Lloyds Banking Group, has exited its investment in Croud to ECI Partners (ECI) following a successful five-year partnership.
Croud is a global full-service digital marketing company that uses its proprietary technology to support the planning, automation and execution of digital marketing campaigns – and then scales this capability via its global marketplace of 2,900 digital marketing domain experts, the Croudie Network. Working alongside Croud’s in-house team of more than 600 digital marketing specialists, together they deliver high-quality campaigns for clients such as Amazon Prime, Aston Martin, Coach, Nespresso, Timberland and the VF Group.
LDC completed a £30m minority investment in Croud in 2019, backing co-founders Luke Smith and Ben Knight to accelerate global growth and M&A activity. With the support of LDC, the management team has completed five complementary acquisitions – VERB Brands (now Croud Luxe), impakt Advisors, Born Social, Metageni and Vert Digital – and invested heavily in talent and technology to support growth at home and overseas.
This included the expansion of the senior team with the appointments of Avinash Kaushik, the former Google senior executive, as Global Chief Strategy Officer; Rick Stallings as Croud’s first Global Chief Data Officer; Dean Gardner as Global Chief Operating Officer; Dani Jordan as its first Chief Marketing and Integration Officer and Richard Holmes as Chief Financial Officer.
Croud has also invested heavily in technology through the development of Croud Control, a proprietary technology platform that delivers AI-powered planning, workflows, automation and execution of digital marketing campaigns.
As a result, Croud has grown threefold during its partnership with LDC. Its US business has grown rapidly, and now accounts for almost a third of the company’s revenue, and overall revenue has increased by more than 360% and headcount by more than 250%. Today, the business employs more than 600 people across its offices in London, Shrewsbury, New York, Atlanta and Dubai.
Private equity investor ECI will now support Croud on the next stage of its growth journey as it looks to expand the business through further acquisitions and organic growth.
We thank David Andrews and the LDC team for being a supportive and impactful partner over the past five years. We’ve achieved significant scale and success, whilst continuing to create brilliant opportunities for our people and deliver outstanding work for our clients. "
Luke continued: “This transaction marks a significant milestone in our long-term growth plans and we’re delighted to be partnering with ECI for the next phase of Croud’s journey, maintaining our independence, while capitalising on new opportunities and innovation.”
The transaction, led by David Andrews, Joseph Fison and Dan Gluckman, provides a money multiple return of 2.8x for LDC.
David Andrews, Partner at LDC, added: “When Luke and Ben founded Croud in 2011, they brought a truly disruptive mindset to an established market. Their ability to innovate and invest in the right areas has set them apart from the competition and underpinned their remarkable growth, both here in the UK and overseas. They’ve also achieved this while continuing to create opportunities for their people and being independently recognised as a great place to work. It’s been a real pleasure to support their vision over the past five years and seeing them move into their next chapter with ECI is something we’re incredibly proud of, and a testament to the world-leading agency they founded and built together.”
LDC and Croud were advised by GP Bullhound (corporate finance), Strategy& (commercial due diligence), A&M (financial due diligence) and DLA Piper (legal).
The transaction, which exchanged in October, is expected to complete next month.