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Creator economy M&A is still going strong.
On Monday, Accenture Song, the marketing services arm of consulting giant Accenture, announced it will acquire Whalar, the agency division of creator economy company Whalar Group. (Scalable is a joint venture with The Lighthouse, which is owned by Whalar Group.)
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Whalar Group’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO Neil Waller told us it was “the largest transaction in the creator economy” during an interview for the Scalable podcast, publishing Thursday. Publicis’ acquisition of Influential in 2024 reportedly cost about $500 million.
The sale comes as the agency landscape is undergoing major upheaval. Big agencies and advertising holding companies have been snapping up specialized influencer marketing firms as demand for creators among brands has grown. That has led to more consolidation, making it harder for independent influencer agencies to compete.
Accenture’s purchase of Whalar is the ninth influencer marketing deal this year, according to data from Quartermast Advisors. That follows 19 influencer marketing acquisitions in 2025.
What makes this deal different is the type of buyer. Consulting companies have historically paid less attention to the creator economy, but that’s now starting to change.
Accenture Song has been expanding its social and creator capabilities through its acquisitions of agencies Unlimited and Superdigital over the past two years, while Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group have released more research on the sector. Earlier this year, McKinsey tapped industry veteran Monica Khan as a creator economy senior advisor.
This shows how important the creator economy has become to virtually every industry and we expect to see more activity in this space, especially as media and creator strategies move closer together.
For Whalar Group, selling the agency may seem like a step back from the creator economy. Whalar is one of the most recognizable influencer marketing companies, having deployed over $600 million in creators since 2016.
Waller framed it as the opposite. “This is going to free us up to push even more,” he told us. “How do we grow the creator economy? Now we’ll just have more money to do it.”
In recent years, Whalar Group has been building out other parts of its business, including talent representation, software services, a venture studio for creator products and The Lighthouse, its physical campuses for creators. These companies will continue under the leadership of Waller and his co-founder and co-CEO James Street, as Whalar agency’s roughly 170 employees, along with co-CEOs Jo Cronk and Emma Harman, move to Accenture Song.
The expansion hasn’t come cheap. UK financial filings show that Whalar Group generated about £110 million in revenue in 2024, up from about £102 million in 2023. However, the company also reported operating losses of over £9 million in both years. Last year’s financial report is not yet available.
“We’ve been able to continually re-invest profits to expand the Whalar Group into new avenues,” Waller told us. (The company also took on outside investors to help fund these projects.)
Looking ahead, he said to expect more acquisitions from Whalar Group.
We’ll have our full interview with Waller in Thursday’s podcast. You can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts.
The Round Up
OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO, though the company said in a newsroom post that it hasn’t decided on timing yet. During last month’s Scalable Summit, OpenAI’s business and partnerships lead David Duxin discussed the company’s creator strategy and why it’s not planning to strike more deals like its acquisition of tech podcast TBPN.
Bending Spoons, an Italian holding company known for acquiring and reviving tech brands, filed for an IPO in the US on Monday, which could value the company around $20 billion. The company’s portfolio includes platforms used by creators such as Vimeo, WeTransfer, Streamyard and AI photo-editing app Remini.
Spotify is looking to license live concert video as it tries to expand its video efforts, Bloomberg reported. The company previously experimented with live audio shows following audio app Clubhouse’s rise, but hasn’t yet rolled out broader live video features.
YouTube is launching the European Creator Consultation, a survey of creators in all 27 EU member states. YouTube hopes providing European policymakers with data will help them better support the creator economy.
Meta Matters
• Instagram now allows users to rearrange the posts on their profiles, a long wished for feature. We are personally very excited to reorder Scalable’s Instagram account. Our takeaway: People still really care about what profiles look like!
• Meta also shared more details about Instagram Plus, its new subscription offering. Paid features include extending a disappearing Story for 48 hours or being able to see how many times your Story was rewatched. We can see how the last one may tempt people!
We discussed Meta’s recent subscription push and which of its offerings we think will be the most enticing to users, on our podcast last week. Watch below or tune in anywhere you get your podcasts.
Deals, Deals, Deals
Suno, the AI music app, raised more than $400 million in Series D funding at a $5.4 billion valuation led by Bond Capital.
Raptive, a creator and publisher monetization platform, launched a new business unit called Raptive Intelligence, focused on turning creator content and audience insights into products for AI, advertising and e-commerce companies.
Raptive also acquired AlchemyAI, an AI food intelligence platform founded by John Roa, for an undisclosed sum. Roa will join the company as chief AI officer. Food is Raptive’s biggest category.
Soundbite
“I’m not a kingmaker.”
The comment came after three political candidates Piker had supported on the campaign trail lost their races. A fourth candidate, Democrat Adam Hamawy, won in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.
Piker told Politico his goal is “just trying to identify wonderful candidates that are more responsive to the needs of the masses, and push for them and get them elected” and “connect them with my audience.”
A Message from Cannes Lions
Join LIONS Creators Ambassadors, Sedge Beswick, Lia Haberman, JT Barnett and Eugene Healey as they unpack all the key insights from the Festival: the trends worth your attention and the strategic shifts reshaping the industry. Be part of it.
LIONS Creators | 22-26 June 2026 | Cannes, France
Creator Moves
More wins for YouTubers at the box office: “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act” grossed more than $20 million domestically, according to data from Box Office Mojo. The film was in the top five at the US box office over the weekend, according to New York Magazine.
And unlike the other recent wins, it’s not a horror film! The animated series for adults originated on YouTube.
🏎️Alix Earle, Jake Shane and Anastasia Karanikolaou were among the influencers who attended the Monaco Grand Prix over the weekend. All three were spotted on athletic brand Alo’s superyacht.
The Creators List, a new independent directory created by Tubefilter, Comscore, Whalar Group and Gospel Stats, aims to help connect brands, agencies and media with creators at Cannes Lions later this month. Other creator-focused companies, including Fohr and Billion Dollar Boy, have also launched efforts to get creators to the festival and help them meet with brands.
Talent Tracker
Nadine Zylstra is the new chief content officer of NPR. Her focus is on expanding audiences for the public radio broadcaster’s news, entertainment and music. Previously, she was global head of programming and original content at Pinterest and global head of YouTube Originals.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, will step down from Microsoft’s board. Microsoft, which bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016, said Hoffman’s decision to leave the board was not due to any disagreement with the company.
Ed Simpson, who was most recently chief strategy officer at Wheelhouse, is launching his own venture, which will invest in YouTube channels, according to Deadline.
George Panagopoulos joined OpenAI’s strategic finance team, where he’ll focus on the ads business. He’s previously held finance roles at TikTok, Spotify and Twitter.
