Livingbridge Invests in Leading Social Media Publisher Jungle Creations

Livingbridge Invests in Leading Social Media Publisher Jungle Creations.

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, today announces its investment in leading social media publishing business, Jungle Creations. The investment was made through Livingbridge’s Enterprise 3 fund, which invests in fast-growth SMEs.

Founded in 2014 by Jamie Bolding and led by Co-CEOs Melissa Chapman and Nat Poulter, the London-based multi-award winning business creates, produces, and distributes content across seven media brands focused on interest areas including food and drink, arts and crafts and female lifestyle. The company’s content is primarily distributed through social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, whilst its branded content arm ‘Jungle Studios’ produces campaigns for the likes of Bailey’s, GSK, Mondelez and Waze. The company has been awarded Branded Content Team Of The Year for four consecutive years whilst its media brand Twisted was recently awarded the accolade ‘Media Brand of The Year’. Jungle is also home to award-winning social first creative agency, The Wild, which leverages data and insights from Jungle’s own channels to design, create and execute organic social campaigns for brands including Heinz, Major League Baseball and Silverspoon.

Jungle has seen rapid growth in recent years as it capitalises on the shift in advertising spend from traditional to social media. In 2020 the company generated revenues of £19.3M and an EBITDA of £2.5M whilst this year in 2021, Jungle is on track to generate revenues of £30M and profits of £5.5M, the highest in its history. Jungle’s brands now boast over 125m followers. Four of these brands – Twisted, Four Nine, Level Fitness and Craft Factory – were ranked top three in their respective categories in the UK by Tubular Labs in June 2021, generating over 300m combined views.

Livingbridge’s investment will support Jungle in fuelling its growth strategy, including the launch of new brands, increased content output for existing brands and internationalisation. Livingbridge was advised by FRP Corporate Finance and JEGI CLARITY.

Founder Jamie Bolding and Edge Investments – that invested in Jungle in 2018 to support its growth – will retain minority stakes in the business. Jungle Creations was advised by the Deloitte Corporate Finance TMT team.

Vernan Richards, Associate Director at Livingbridge, said: “Jungle has demonstrated a consistent ability to create content that resonates with a large audience globally across multiple social platforms and verticals. In the current landscape, access to these audiences has become a valuable commodity for brands as they seek to target Gen Z and Millennial audiences. Jungle is ideally positioned to take advantage of positive market tailwinds, and we look forward to working with Nat Poulter and Melissa Chapman to cement its role as a scalable and market leading business.”

Melissa Chapman, Co-CEO at Jungle Creations said:

“We are thrilled to have partnered with Livingbridge, a company with extensive experience in helping businesses scale.”

Nat Poulter, Co-CEO at Jungle Creations, added: “They have shown great passion for both our business model and industry, and we believe that together we will continue to provide high quality content to our viewers whilst we embark on the next stage of our growth journey.”