Two leading influencer and social platforms—Boston-based Mavrck and Vancouver-based Later—are teaming up to take the creator economy by storm. The partnership is funded with a USD $135 million strategic investment by global growth equity investor Summit Partners. The funding represents a follow-on to the firm’s $120 million investment in Mavrck in December 2021. 

To any sports fans in Vancouver, Boston isn’t exactly friendly territory given the 2011 Stanley Cup Final that will always be fresh in some minds. But perhaps this is the start of a potential détente. 

On the surface, the deal looks like an acquisition—the Canucks made a few of those to bolster their team for that Cup run. Yet, like Roberto Luongo straining to keep Bruins shots out of the Canucks’ net, a spokesperson for Later stressed that the deal was not a merger or acquisition, and instead a joining of forces. 

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Why it matters: Bolstered by support from companies like Later and Mavrck, influencer marketing is having a moment. Since 2020, for example, the average brand spend on the Mavrck platform has increased by 114 percent, which the company reads as a testament to the explosive growth of the influencer marketing industry. But both are OGs in supporting creators. Later was one of the first companies to provide link-in-bio services for Instagram, for instance.

However, the companies are also seeing a lack of sophisticated social analytics. Meaningful measurement is frequently cited as one of the most pressing challenges for enterprise brand influencer marketers, the companies say. Through this joining of forces, Later and Mavrck seek to solve these measurement and monetization issues while building a platform that drives revenue for brands and creators.

What’s the tea?: Later will continue to operate as a standalone product and business unit while joining forces with Mavrck to solve creator measurement and monetization at scale. The pair of companies state this is all in the name of better serving both sides of the ecosystem—brands and creators. There will likely need to be some icebreakers at the next all-hands:

Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO of Mavrck, will now lead a new senior leadership team comprised of leaders from both companies. Roger Patterson, co-founder and CEO of Later, will oversee the Later business unit as president and join the board of directors. Smith Anderson, Mavrck’s chief customer officer, will become president of Mavrck’s enterprise-focused business unit. Robin de Pelham, Later’s VP of people and places, is joining as chief people officer. Also joining the senior leadership team is Ian MacKinnon, Later’s co-founder and chief technology officer and Sean Naegeli, Mavrck’s co-founder and chief creator officer.

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Who’s saying what?: “Creators add tremendous value to brands, but the ability to measure that value remains a challenge—creating tension between brands and the creators with whom they collaborate. Together, Mavrck and Later are committed to building an ecosystem of trust between marketers and creators—powered by proprietary data and designed to add transparency to the compensation process and fuel the growth of the creator middle class,” said Stevens in a release. 

“We’ve built a phenomenal platform designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs to manage their digital marketing, commerce, and customer relationships all in one place. Our notable scale is a result of the commitment we've placed on our role within that ecosystem,” said Patterson. “Later’s leading technology paired with Mavrck’s enterprise social proof platform will expand on that value even further. Together we’ll nurture a symbiotic relationship between creators and brands, helping both to drive meaningful results to grow their businesses.”