MC&C plots global expansion with £6.6m investment

MC&C: Mike Fell, Phillip Duquenoy of KCP, Colling and Booth

Media agency Mike Colling & Company has secured a £6.6m investment from private equity house Key Capital Partners for a significant minority stake, providing growth capital to expand the business on an international scale through the formation of a new MC&C Group.
The move, which sees KCP partner Mike Fell join a new group executive board as a non-executive director, will link MC&C London, MC&C Muse and the newly-formed MC&C International.
Fell joins founder Mike Colling, executive chairman Steve Booth, UK managing director Mark Jackson, and deputy managing director Robin Trust on the new board.
The capital will be used to build the team, to invest further in operational technology and potential acquisitions, and accelerate international growth. MC&C was advised by Clarity, a leading M&A advisor for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors.
Further to the appointment of chief strategy officer Toby Strangewood and chief digital officer Richard Stanton in July, the group has created two further new strategic roles under a new operational structure, with a head of social, and international managing director. It is expected to announce who will be taking up these roles in the new few months.
The four join a newly-expanded management team, all of whom become equity partners in MC&C Group, under the leadership of Jackson and Trust.
MC&C founder Mike Colling said: “The time is right for a new model of media agency: a fully-accountable, independent-minded, performance-led global network built on the principle that every penny of media spend should deliver business growth. Our new model of performance creates the right blend of brand building, customer acquisition and sales, built on our unique data and analytics. And as we are paid by delivering clients’ business outcomes, rather than media outputs, we are genuine growth partners.
“Effective growth marketing requires transparency, professionalism and accountability. Having proven the model, and the demand for our way of working, we’re ready to scale and want to become world leaders in performance. Our partnership with Key Capital Partners give us the growth capital we need to deliver on this vision.”
Fell added: “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.”

TOPICS:agency news MC&C media Mike Colling