GP Bullhound advises Captiv8 on its acquisition by Publicis

Founded in 2015 by Krishna Subramanian and Sunil Verma, Captiv8 is the world’s most advanced influencer marketing and commerce technology platform. With 15m+ creators globally, proprietary AI-powered tech, and leading social commerce suite, Captiv8 sets the industry benchmark for scale, intelligence, and measurable performance. The platform leverages machine learning and real-time data ingestion to power predictive creator recommendations, audience modeling, sentiment analysis, and performance forecasting across platforms and formats. Captiv8 has a large roster of blue-chip clients, including Unilever, Nike, 3M, PepsiCo and Toyota as well as strong relationships with all the agency holding companies. 

The combination of Captiv8 and Publicis’ Influential creates an unrivaled influencer solution with the largest creator database, AI-powered intelligence, and a roster of the world’s largest brands

“Captiv8 was built to unify the fragmented creator economy – turning influence into a commerce engine that drives real ROI. Publicis Groupe shares that vision for a fully connected, data-powered future. Together, we’re not just scaling creator marketing, we’re transforming it into a global growth channel that delivers measurable impact from first impression to final purchase. GP Bullhound’s knowledge of the influencer and digital marketing sectors, combined with their tireless commitment and effort were critical in helping us pull this transaction together.” Krishna Subramanian, Captiv8 Co-Founder & CEO

“It was a pleasure working with the entire Captiv8 team on this transaction and we’re excited about the next step in their journey. With this acquisition, Publicis Groupe creates the global leader in Connected Influencer, bringing together Captiv8’s technology platform, Influential’s scaled service layer, and Epsilon’s identity-led data and targeting.” Eric Crowley and Alec Dafferner, GP Bullhound 

This transaction reinforces GP Bullhound’s global leadership in the Influencer Marketing sector, with a strong track record advising global category leaders including The GOAT Agency on their sale to WPP, Pixly on their sale to ACC and Channel Factory on their investment by Star Mountain Capital, among many others. 

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Eric Crowley, Partner, at eric.crowley@gpbullhound.com
Alec Dafferner, Partner, at alec.dafferner@gpbullhound.com

About Captiv8
Captiv8 is an influencer marketing platform offering managed services and a robust software platform. The company’s platform discovers and matches talents on real-time audience data across social platforms using artificial intelligence, as well as provides audience insights, enabling companies to understand their audience, optimize content, benchmark against competitors, and grow their fan base worldwide. Captiv8 has a large roster of blue chip clients including Unilever, Nike, 3M, PepsiCo and Toyota as well as strong relationships with all the agency holding companies. This transaction should further expand our credentials in digital services and influencer software. Learn more at www.captiv8.com.

About Publicis
Publicis Groupe is a global leader in marketing, communication, and digital transformation services. Headquartered in Paris, it offers advertising, media planning and buying, data analytics, and technology solutions through a network of agencies. Visit www.publicisgroupe.com for more information.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs. Founded in 1999, the firm has 13 offices across Europe, the US, and Asia. Learn more at www.gpbullhound.com.