Manchester-based digital collective Inc & Co has chalked up acquisitions five, six and seven with the purchase of MyLife Digital and its associated businesses, Wood for Trees and Insight Analysis, for an undisclosed sum.
Inc & Co launched in July 2019 to help digital businesses prosper. It recorded a £10m turnover in its first 12 months and is now taking the total number of digital businesses within the group from six to nine and doubling headcount to 250.
Founded in 2014, MyLife Digital provides analytics and data sharing services to the not-for-profit, sport, healthcare and government sectors, aimed at improving organisational performance and transparency through its personal data management platform, Consentric. MyLife Digital partners include Salesforce, REaD Group and Blueberry Wave, while its client list includes Mitsubishi Motors, Jewson and Blue Cross.
Meanwhile, subsidiary Wood for Trees was founded by ex-Occam director Jim Baggett in 2007. In 2015, it signed a funding deal with MyLife Digital and drafted in former DST Applied Analytics chief Jason Cromack as chief executive; Baggett resigned as a director the same year but carried on working for the business until July 2016.
Wood for Trees clients include, rather fittingly, the Woodland Trust, Dogs Trust, Shelter, WWF, Amnesty International and Concern Worldwide.
Cromack said: “We are excited by Inc & Co’s people-first approach and the breadth of skills and services available across the collective that will help us develop our current service offering to our clients in the charity sector.”
The final part of the deal is for Insight Analysis, set up in 2000 to offer data analysis to help elite athletes from the worlds of football, rugby, tennis and athletics to improve their performance.
The agency’s clients include UK Sport, British Athletics, the Lawn Tennis Association, professional cycling’s Team Ineos, English football’s Premier League, Bath Rugby, GB Snowsport and the English Institute of Sport.
Insight Analysis director Mike Hughes said: “The support of Inc & Co and the opportunity to learn from other like-minded digital businesses is only going to enhance our offering to our elite sport clients.”
The acquisitions come just weeks after Inc & Co added digital sports specialist Skylab to the collective, which also includes digital agencies Brass, Neon, Cuhu and on-demand dry-cleaning and laundry delivery platform Laundrapp.
Inc & Co group chief executive Jack Mason said: “We know that a lot of businesses are struggling because of the pandemic and the upcoming ending of the furlough scheme, and we want to support as many digital businesses as possible to help them survive and thrive.
“This addition represents our commitment to growth, and our goal with every new acquisition remains to enhance our offering across the digital arena.
“I am particularly excited to see the synergy between Insight Analysis and our recently acquired digital sports agency Skylab, as they both possess specialist skillsets in sports.”
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