PORTFOLIO COMPANY
Jungle Creations
A multi-channel social media marketing agency using its multiple brands to target its diverse audience base
- Ranked by FT as UK’s fastest growing media company
- Built an online community of over 120 million followers
- Created campaigns for Iconic brands such as Greenpeace, Virgin and Heinz
- Built a full-service, social-first creative agency, The Wild
- Acquired by private equity backer Livingbridge
The Back Story
Backed with a government loan of £10k and working from his mum’s house, Jamie Bolding set up Viral Thread in 2014, directly after graduating from Manchester University with a degree in business management. Initially, VT collated existing content, but quickly, it was generating its own, primarily targeting students.
In 2016, it posted a video of a bike helmet with an airbag, invented by Swedish company, Hövding. 150 million views later, Hövding’s sales quadrupled and its share price doubled in a week. By 2017, Jungle (as it was now known) was getting four billion views a month on Facebook, roughly twice what Walt Disney were managing.
In 2018, Edge invested in Jungle, and appointed Venture Partner John Smith – former BBC Worldwide CEO – as Chair. Jungle diversified to become a media marketing and commerce business with seven core media brands ranging from original flagship brand, VT to fitness, food and e-commerce.
Why we chose to invest
Jamie Bolding had a unique vision for the company and understood how the advertising market was evolving its relationship with social media. Introducing John Smith alongside our investment, we felt confident we could help him expand the company both internationally and onto new platforms.
After a stellar year in 2020, private equity group Livingbridge acquired a majority stake in Jungle Creations to help them in the next phases of their growth.
Tell us what you are building
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