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Creator economy experts say 2023 will be a buyer's market. Here are 5 M&A themes to watch, from tech buyers like Shopify to startup consolidation.

Pearpop cofounder Cole Mason poses in front of a glowing Pearpop logo.
Pearpop, which just raised $18 million, is being eyed as a potential buyer. Pearpop.

  • 2022 saw some creator-economy startups consider consolidation.
  • At least 20 M&A deals were inked in 2022, and insiders predict this number will continue to grow.
  • Creator-economy and market experts gave Insider their predictions for M&A in the space in 2023.

Creator-economy experts say it will be a buyer's market in 2023.

"As far as net change, M&A next year will resemble the second half of 2022: relatively slow," said Alex Zirin, an associate at consulting firm RockWater Industries. "That said, this is not necessarily true across all circumstances."

As a result of the tougher macroeconomic environment, which many business leaders predict will lead to a recession and a cooldown in the startup sphere, creator-economy companies are due for a shakeup.

"Depressed valuations and multiples mean that most acquisition targets are effectively 'on sale,'" Zirin added. "As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices."

In 2022, the industry already saw a run of strategic deals.

Here's a breakdown of 22 M&A deals that went down this year:

CompanyAcquired ByMonth
ShareGridBackstageJanuary
TrendpopCollabFebruary
Village MarketingWPPFebruary
C TalentWhalarMarch
Popular PaysLightricksMarch
DovetaleShopifyApril
LaterMavrckApril
FanbytesBrainlabsMay
The YESPinterestJune
FanFixSuperOrdinaryJuly
ReKTGlobalInfinite RealityJuly
Digital Golf CollectiveDBAAugust
MediakitsViral NationSeptember
PicoByteDance (TikTok)September
CoolabiTalenthouseOctober
AlterGoogleOctober
VibelyKajabiNovember
SocialyteDolphin EntertainmentNovember
SpringAmazeNovember
TwoReachSportfiveNovember
Underscore TalenttheSoulDecember
Influencer ResponseAcceleration PartnersDecember

While 2021 minted 11 unicorns in the space, 2022 saw only four, said Ollie Forsyth, global community manager at VC fund Antler. Venture capitalists are thinking twice about where to put their money — and that could push more startups to consider selling.

"It's more about what do the buyers want out of a potential deal?" Matt Lytle, senior managing director of tech investment banking at SVB Securities, said of the M&A landscape. "One could be they want to consolidate market share. The second could be they want to add new technology or talent to the platform that they don't have. Another option could be that there's financial benefits to the acquisition."

Insider spoke with creator-economy and market experts about what deals and the broader M&A landscape in 2023 may look like. Here are 5 trends they are betting on.

1. Tougher economic conditions will pressurize deals

"If you wrote 'creator economy' on a napkin, you would get a $5 million pre-seed," said Gil Kruger, a former Fullscreen executive, about the funding climate in 2021.

But things have changed.

Since the spring, more than two dozen creator-economy companies, from startups like Cameo to big platforms like Meta, have laid off staffers in response to economic headwinds. Meanwhile, VC funding has cooled. 

This leaves creator-economy startups in a new terrain. Heading into 2023, flashy funding rounds may be harder to come by. 

"It's less likely that VCs will be investing in speculative new deals and more likely that they will put their capital to work with the companies in their portfolio," said digital-media expert and former CEO of VidCon Jim Louderback. Some may also get choosy about where they put those dollars. 

Fewer opportunities to raise financing could push some startups to sell, said Joe Gagliese, cofounder and CEO of the influencer-marketing firm Viral Nation.

"Now you're going to see a lot more strategic direction," he said, adding that influencer companies that raised tons of money when the market was hot are going to "either burn out and go away, or be in a situation where they are  desperate to be sold."

Harry Gestetner, whose company FanFix got acquired by beauty accelerator SuperOrdinary in the summer, added that creator-economy startups generally will have three options: "Raise a ton of money, which will not be easy in this environment; take a strategic buyout; or eventually be acquired major social-media conglomerates."

2. Industry experts are keeping an eye on big tech and cloud companies as potential buyers

Big tech and cloud companies, like ecommerce giant Shopify, were top buyer predictions among creator-economy insiders.

"Shopify has a very strong business, trust, and legitimacy," said Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of ecommerce and link-in-bio platform Koji. "They own the fundamentals of the old way of monetizing. If they want to evolve into this new world where people mostly spend their time inside of social media, it would make sense for them to pick up some additional sort of technologies there." 

Shopify acquired dovetale website
Shopify rebranded Dovetale to "Shopify Collabs" after the acquisition deal. Screengrab

In April, Shopify announced it had acquired the influencer-marketing company Dovetale.

"We really see creators as the next generation of entrepreneurs," Amir Kabbara, Shopify's director of product, told Modern Retail at the time.

For cloud companies like Snowflake, acquiring creator-economy startups could be a way to get "that additional plump up of their revenue and their total market domination forward," said Cynthia Ruff, founder of startup Hashtag Pay Me.

"Our acquisitions to date have been driven by the opportunity to accelerate our product roadmap," Christian Kleinerman, Snowflake's SVP of product, said in a written statement, adding that the company would continue to consider opportunities. 

Meanwhile, some industry insiders also predict that big social-media companies like Meta and TikTok will start looking toward acquiring successful startups.

"They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said.

Josh Constine, partner at VC fund Signalfire, added that while it might be easier for big tech companies to attempt to copy the services some startups offer — like tipping, subscriptions, and shopping — they're finding that creators don't trust them, and acquisition might prove more successful. 

But others believe that the economic environment will deter social-media companies from acquiring.

"The only reason why you would see a platform acquire is because they want the team," Louderback said. "But all these companies are now laying people off, so why do they really need a team?"

Regulatory pressure may also deter social-media companies from acquiring. In October, the UK competition regulator ordered Meta to sell gif platform Giphy for the second time, after finding that it would "limit choice for UK social media users."

Meta and TikTok did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

3. Talent agencies, influencer-marketing firms, and some well-funded startups are also potential buyers

Avi Gandhi, founder of the advisory firm Partner with Creators, forecasts that tech-driven influencer-marketing and talent-management firms might also be looking to acquire.

Whalar, for example, acquired C Talent, a disabled-led talent management firm, in March. 

"We are not actively looking to acquire companies," Whalar CEO Rob Horler told Insider in a written statement. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it."

Keely Cat-Wells in foreground wearing a blue suit and with various female clients from her agency, C Talent, posed behind her.
Whalar acquired influencer talent management agency C Talent in March. Abigail Gorden

Gandhi pointed to the influencer-marketing company Influential as a potential buyer.

"There are dozens of companies in the creator economy that would be additive to organizations," Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential, wrote to Insider in a statement. "For us, we focus on those that have exclusive technology and data to augment our solutions for Fortune 1000 brands. In a down market, there are many companies that are not cash flow positive that will have trouble finding financing and great buys will present themselves." 

Viral Nation's Gagliese and Thomas Walters, the cofounder of influencer-marketing firm Billion Dollar Boy, confirmed that they are exploring acquisition opportunities.

Gagliese, in particular, said his company has "about three deals that are on the one-yard line of completion."

Pearpop, a creator-marketing startup that recently raised an $18 million funding round at a $300 million valuation, could also be a potential buyer, according to Ruff, the Hashtag Pay Me found — particularly as it builds out its data analytics offerings. Pearpop declined to comment on its M&A plans.

4. Startups can expect consolidation in saturated markets

The crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation.

"It's incredibly hard to get the attention of most creators these days," Kruger said. "Their inboxes are flooded with everybody trying to give them free products to offering paid sponsorships to new platforms that are recruiting creators that need creators in order to survive."

Several of the creator-economy experts Insider spoke with pointed to the link-in-bio space — which has more than 30 competitors — as a perfect storm. In 2022, Insider reported about how link-in-bio platforms experienced a gold rush, but industry insiders saw a wave of M&A coming from miles ahead.

"If you throw a rock, you will hit a link-in-bio platform," Kruger said. Ruff said that she wouldn't be surprised if the space "lost 10 link-in-bio companies" this coming year.

"There's got to be a shakeout in that market," Louderback said. "There's only so many bios that can get linked."

5. Creators might become involved in M&A, both as buyers and as acquisition targets

As creators become full-fledged media companies, experts predict that some of them may get involved in mergers and acquisitions in various capacities.

Kruger referenced how YouTuber Casey Neistat, who has 12.5 million subscribers, sold an app he created to CNN in 2016 and joined the media network.

That venture didn't end well, but Kruger thinks creators like Neistat could, instead, find themselves in the position of a buyer in 2023. And acquisitions of this ilk are already happening: Short-form digital content publisher TheSoul recently acquired a majority stake in talent-management firm Underscore Talent.

Ruff also highlighted an opportunity for creators' channels themselves to ink merger deals.

"So many great channels operate by themselves and could scale quicker and create more brand deal impact if they formed coalitions with each other," Ruff said.

Another phenomenon that will continue to grow is companies acquiring the rights to the video catalogs of creators, Antler's Forsyth forecasted.

Jellysmack at VidCon
Jellysmack at VidCon. Amanda Perelli/Insider

Companies like Jellysmack and Spotter have been leading the charge, operating in a similar way as investment funds have done for decades with catalogs of music artists. 

In the creator economy, companies bet on the fact that YouTube advertising revenue on the videos will increase as the audiences of creators grow and they gain more views.

"The space is pretty huge," Forsyth said. "I'm excited to see what type of new economy that creates."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the name and title of Matt Lytle, senior managing director of tech investment banking at SVB Securities.

M&A Creator economy Influencers

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