PORTFOLIO COMPANY
Jungle Creations
A multi-channel social media marketing agency which moved to the next level thanks to its partnership with Edge
- Now ranked by FT as UK’s fastest growing media company
- Built an online community of over 120 million followers
- Created campaigns for brands such as Greenpeace and Virgin
- Built a full-service, social-first creative agency, The Wild
- Current EBITDA run-rate of £6m
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 John Smith – former BBC Worldwide CEO – became its venture partner. 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 and how Edge added value
Jamie Bolding had a unique vision for his company and understood how the advertising market was evolving. By introducing him to the experience of John Smith alongside our investment package, we felt confident we could help him expand the company both internationally and onto new platforms to maximise revenue growth. Tellingly, during the time that JC and Edge collaborated, not only did the company experience record growth, but many of its closest rivals foundered.
After a stellar year in 2020, we felt we had progressed the company successfully and were ready to manage our exit. This we did successfully by facilitating the sale of 51% percent of JC to the private equity firm, Livingbridge for £30m.
Tell us what you are building
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