GRVTY Media acquired by Towerhill, raises funding to boost growth

Singapore-based mostly media enterprise GRVTY Media introduced right now (July 29) that Towerhill — the investment automobile of Kiat Lim, who is the son of billionaire Peter Lim — has acquired a vast majority stake of the enterprise for an undisclosed amount of money.

Section of the offer is a cash injection, which will be made use of to gas the company’s expansion.

Launched in April 2017, GRVTY Media is a creative agency and electronic media group that properties Vulcan Submit, VP Label, Millennials of Singapore, and The Each day Ketchup. GRVTY Media also has a regional business office at Malaysia which houses Vulcan Post Malaysia and Explore KL.

It was last valued at S$3.6 million in July 2017 — just a few months soon after its inception — in which it raised S$1 million from Spout Leisure Team (its shares were later transferred to REAPRA).

What led to the acquisition?

Jacky Yap, co-founder of GRVTY Media, advised Vulcan Put up that by a person of his many jobs, Kiat got acquainted with the firm and experienced a possibility to improved fully grasp its media and company capabilities.

This opened the doorway to many other “synergistic” enterprise possibilities. Especially, Kiat sought GRVTY’s guidance in the numerous companies he is associated in, which include Thomson Clinical Group, NFT local community ARC, and electronic soccer system zujuGP. 

As enterprise relations and billings grew, Kiat initiated the dialogue on a probable acquisition.

“Our first response was, ‘let’s just see where this goes’. We have acquired a number of other acquisition presents, but this one particular feels additional real mainly because of our present relationship and friendship. The entire thing wrapped up actually swiftly – in two months, they confirmed their broad determination to receive and then we commenced performing by way of the quantities,” shared Johnathan Chua, co-founder of GRVTY. 

When requested why previous acquisition features did not go through, he cited two important causes: there were no strategic advantages for GRVTY, and they experienced been given “lowball” offers. 

For this individual acquisition offer, the founders designed it incredibly obvious that the motive they approved the present is for the reason that they can see that it will enable them “take much better care” of their staff, which features superior salaries, and bringing in extra senior hires who can lead their prosperity of encounter.

We see a great deal of strategic benefit in the acquisition for many good reasons. Kiat is plainly effectively-related, allowing us accessibility to new organization alternatives. With the added funding, it allows us to scale more quickly despite a attainable looming recession. I individually appear up to Kiat and he believes in our company. Even ahead of the acquisition, we’ve experienced several discussions at size as to how Jacky and I can even more increase GRVTY Media, and now, I’m happy we’re likely to develop it together.

– Johnathan Chua, co-founder of GRVTY Media

Independently, Kiat told Vulcan Publish that he has witnessed GRVTY’s regular and high calibre of do the job quality and competence all through their doing work romance. 

“Having labored with John, Jacky, Sarah and the crew about the system of the previous yr, their operate ethics strongly resonated with me. I am happy to have them, the abilities they have nurtured, and the brands they’ve developed to be a component of our ecosystem and I look forward to using the GRVTY model to the up coming amount,” expressed Kiat.

​​It is time to get “aggressive” with their enlargement ideas

According to the founders, GRVTY Media savored a sturdy start off — it was successful from the 1st month, and they achieved shut to S$2 million in revenue in their to start with yr as partners again in 2017.

Nonetheless, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Jacky shared that GRVTY’s development slowed down as corporations tightened their promoting budgets. No matter, they counted them selves lucky to survive this tough period of time unscathed.

Even though purchasers did scale again on spending, they did not eliminate any significant accounts. 

“We did not reduce dollars and more importantly, we did not lose any one owing to budget cuts. We even squeezed out a tiny bonus for our colleagues throughout the pandemic,” explained Johnathan. 

In simple fact, GRVTY has bounced again much better than ever this 12 months, as purchasers return with even bigger budgets. 

“This yr is also significant for us as we were awarded tenders for equally Full of Authorities (WOG) inventive solutions and media acquiring. It’s a big milestone, and we goal to scale our team accordingly to far better assistance our customers,” explained Jacky. 

He added that though they have the capacity to acquire and ramp up revenue, it is the payment cycle that’s holding them again. 

Thanks to the character of the company organization, when we shut a deal, we perform on the campaign for a few to twelve months, and then we have to wait a further a few to 6 months for the payment to appear in. Although the organization is monetarily nutritious and financially rewarding, we have substantial receivables so cashflow was an challenge.

Now that we have this most recent injection of cash, we are more self-confident to scale the enterprise — to use much more, and do far more. We took this financial commitment so we can have home to breathe and be a little a lot more aggressive [with our expansion plans].

– Jacky Yap, co-founder of GRVTY Media.

For the Malaysia office which is helmed by Sarah Enxhi and her crew, the organization has also been worthwhile and have been acquiring robust aid from makes and advertisers.

Through the two a long time of motion manage orders, GRVTY Media Malaysia has been in a position to raise our earnings, keep our abilities, give out bonuses and increments. This is thanks to our Vulcan Article staff below in Malaysia who’s place in the work with each other to aid GRVTY thrive, and a lot of supportive consumers. I’m seeking ahead to a lot more a lot more progress and much more tips appear to lifestyle with Jacky, John and Kiat.

– Sarah Enxhi, co-founder of GRVTY Media Malaysia.

What is future for GRVTY?

Although Kiat owns the bulk stake in the organization, equally founders are continue to pretty substantially in regulate of the organization and all the things will stay the exact operationally. 

The only mandate is that we expand the firm and it has to be lucrative, but which is a goal we now share. … It is quite crucial for us to be a sustainable corporation so we really do not have to hold on boosting resources that is just nerve-racking. [This acquisition] is undoubtedly not an endgame for us, hence why both of those founders are staying on.

We just want to improve as much as achievable — we want to improve our earnings, preserve our employees content, keep vital skills, and entice far more top rated talents.

– Jacky Yap, co-founder of GRVTY Media

Shifting forward, the organization is hunting to scale its groups and abilities in its three enterprise divisions: media, agency, and growth hacking.

“With the funding, we also goal to double our present headcount of 36 by subsequent year,” claimed Johnathan, including that he personally sights GRVTY to be at ‘Phase 3’ of its development stage. 

“We are continue to a really younger business, and we however have a ton to discover and a lot of area to mature. As the firm matures, a bulk of the fund will be channeled into expertise acquisition. We’re looking to retain the services of persons we (the founders) and the relaxation of our crew can discover from,” he summed up.

Highlighted Image Credit score: GRVTY Media