Later Acquires Mavely

Later acquired Mavely for $250M.

It's the first creator economy M&A transaction of 2025. Here are the highlights, and what it means for the industry:

𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞
• Later (formerly Mavrck), a leading influencer marketing and social media management company.
• Founded Nov 2014.
• Raised $276.4M, most of which has come from PE firm Summit Partners.
• Mavely marks the group's 3rd acquisition, following GroupHigh (Aug 2019) and Later (Apr 2022) before Mavrck took its name in the rebrand.

𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞
• Mavely, a social commerce platform that helps "everyday influencers" promote products through shoppable links.
• Founded Jun 2018.
• Raised a $1M Seed.
• Boasts 120K+ creators who’ve driven $1B+ in GMV across 1,400+ brands.
• Acquired by Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) in Sep 2021 for $16.8M cash upfront + $24.0M earnout.
• The asset has performed well for Nu Skin. Mavely's revenue growth for the last 9 months was 155% over the prior period.
• Mavely's 75 employees will join Later’s team of 300.

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞
• Nu Skin, a personal care and supplement company.
• $385M market cap.
• Made a roughly 5x return on Mavely (3-year hold).
• Stock is up 18% today on the news.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐞
• Strengthens Later's tech offering, influencer network, and customer base.
• Expands the company's capabilities into social commerce and affiliate marketing, which it can cross-sell to existing customers.
• Positions Later to compete with LTK and other scaled influencer marketing + social commerce players.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲?

1️⃣ Influencer marketing M&A is back.

After a particularly busy 2021 - 2023, acquisitions of influencer marketing companies dropped sharply in 2024. The Mavely deal signals renewed interest in the space, and we expect more transactions this year.

2️⃣ 9-figure transactions are becoming more common.

The creator economy is seeing more $100M+ acquisitions, like Publicis x Influential, NTWRK x Complex, and Hershey's x Sour Strips from 2024.

At this rate, there will be more creator economy unicorns in the next few years as well.

3️⃣ The SMM x IM arms race heats up.

Social media management (SMM) and influencer marketing (IM) tools are increasingly pairing up, in an effort to expand their reach and capabilities. Examples include Sprout x Tagger, Brandwatch x Paladin, Meltwater x Klear, and of course Later x Mavrck.

Expect the trend to continue, especially as other SMM platforms look to place their IM bets.

Congrats to the Mavely and Later teams! Looking forward to following your next chapter of success together.