LONDON & NEW YORK — LoopMe (‘the Company’), a leading brand-focused mobile advertising platform, announced Mayfair Equity Partners (‘Mayfair’), a leading tech and consumer growth investor, as its new investment partner. LoopMe has estimated gross revenues of nearly $100 million for full year 2021, having achieved revenue growth of c.50% p.a. over the past three years, with the majority of revenues now coming from the United States. Funds advised by Mayfair are investing $120 million to acquire a majority stake in LoopMe that will value the Company at close to $200 million. The investment will see LoopMe continue to expand internationally whilst bringing innovative new products to market.
“We look forward to working with Mayfair and the LoopMe management to help drive further growth and consolidate its presence in even more international markets as it moves towards the next exciting chapter of its growth trajectory.”
Founded in 2012, LoopMe has transformed the mobile advertising sector through the innovative application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies to optimize media campaign delivery in real-time. Through its outcomes-based technology platform, LoopMe drives both measurable uplift in brand deliverables and more effective targeting across online and offline marketing goals, including brand uplift, purchase intent, consideration, footfall and sales. LoopMe’s services are currently available across mobile, connected TV (CTV), digital audio, digital out-of-home and other emerging digital advertising channels. The Company’s clients include brands, major holding companies and publishers such as dentsu, Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, Pepsi, Microsoft, Sony Pictures, Hyundai/Kia and WarnerMedia.
Mayfair’s investment will allow LoopMe to accelerate growth in its core markets such as the United States while expanding into new geographies, including Japan. Mayfair will become the majority investor, partnering with LoopMe’s founders, Stephen Upstone and Marco van de Bergh, its wider management team and existing institutional investors including BGF.
This investment builds on Mayfair’s strong track record in digital media, which includes Talon Outdoor (Out-of-Home specialist media agency) and SuperAwesome (a leading kids’ digital media platform). Mayfair is also a shareholder in a number of fast-growing unicorns such as Epic Games (the developer of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine), OVO Group (a tech-enabled energy solutions provider) and Graphcore (a pioneering developer of AI accelerators).
“LoopMe has experienced phenomenal growth over the past ten years, particularly in the U.S., within the mobile video app ecosystem and now in CTV,” said Stephen Upstone, CEO and founder of LoopMe. “As a leading data and privacy-compliant software platform delivering exceptional performance without the need for personal identifying data, LoopMe is poised for continued success given ongoing market developments with regards to data regulation and usage. We are excited to welcome the support of Mayfair Equity Partners as we expand into new geographies and add new product offerings around data and measurement.”
“Over the last decade the mobile brand-based advertising market has undergone a period of rapid growth, expanding to over $8 billion1 in size. This is a very dynamic part of the AdTech ecosystem, which is supported by increasing handset penetration and the desire for personalised digital content. We have long been impressed with LoopMe’s strong growth and market leadership, and we see significant opportunity to continue that trajectory by supporting their mobile in-app and CTV capabilities,” said Daniel Sasaki, Managing Partner at Mayfair Equity Partners. “We are thrilled to back Stephen and Marco as LoopMe continues its expansion and diversification, particularly across the US, APAC and EMEA.”
“We’ve been consistently impressed by the outstanding growth delivered by LoopMe to date, with the quality of technology and exceptional outcomes delivered for brands,” said Tom McDonnell, investor at BGF. “We look forward to working with Mayfair and the LoopMe management to help drive further growth and consolidate its presence in even more international markets as it moves towards the next exciting chapter of its growth trajectory.”
The transaction is expected to close subject to customary approvals by or before February 2022. The principal advisors for this transaction for LoopMe include Raymond James, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, PwC Strategy&, Intechnica, BDO and Deloitte and for Mayfair Equity Partners include Goodwin Proctor, PwC, BDO, and GP Bullhound.
For more information about LoopMe, please visit www.loopme.com.
About LoopMe
LoopMe, a leading outcomes-based platform, closes the loop on digital advertising. By leveraging AI to optimize media delivery in real-time, we drive measurable uplift for business outcomes and more effective advertising across online and offline marketing goals, including brand lift, purchase intent, consideration, foot traffic and sales. LoopMe was founded in 2012 with the mission to create better consumer experiences through innovation, powered by data, in order to bring people and brands together. The Company is headquartered in the UK, with global offices across New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Singapore, Dnipro (Ukraine), Japan and Hong Kong. LoopMe’s venture investors included OpenOcean, HV Capital, Impulse VC, Claret Capital Partners, Da Vinci Capital and BGF. For more information, please visit www.loopme.com.
About Mayfair Equity Partners
Mayfair Equity Partners is a leading tech and consumer growth investor. Its primary focus is on building strong partnerships with exceptional management teams. Mayfair has an established track record in supporting digitally enabled businesses, including OVO Group, a technology-enabled market leader in the retail energy space, Parcel2Go, the UK’s leading online marketplace for parcel delivery, Talon Outdoor, the U.K.’s only fully independent Out-of-Home specialist media agency, atHome Group, the market leading property and auto classifieds platform in Luxembourg, SuperAwesome, a leading kids’ digital media platform, and Graphcore (a pioneering producer of AI and machine learning accelerators). For more information, please visit www.mayfairequity.com.
About BGF
BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested £3 billion in more than 460 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK and Ireland. BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs. BGF invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 16 offices. In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund – and in 2020, Australia did the same, both based on BGF’s funding model. For more information, please visit www.bgf.co.uk
1 Source: PWC
