Campfire secures investment from Literacy Capital

Campfire, the Manchester-based influencer marketing agency, has taken a significant minority investment from Literacy Capital plc, the London-listed investment trust co-founded by Paul and Richard Pindar in 2017.

Joe Gradwell and Alex Brown started Campfire in 2019, after years growing audiences for brands at Social Chain. Five years on, the agency has run more than 10,000 influencer collaborations across beauty, lifestyle and FMCG, with Spark (our in-house trend prediction tool) sitting at the centre of how we plan work.

What does the investment mean for Campfire?

It gives us room to grow in two directions at once: building out the team and the technology behind our work, and looking at acquisitions that fit. Joe stays on as CEO and Alex as Chief Creative Officer, so the people clients work with day to day don't change.

Who is joining the board?

Jim Brigden joins as non-executive chairman and Paul Cooper as non-executive director. Between them they bring experience from Brainlabs, I Spy, The Search Works and Overture, which is a useful mix of agency growth and performance know-how for where we're heading.

Campfire is Literacy Capital's 24th platform investment since the fund launched. Benchmark International facilitated the transaction and Hogan Lovells advised Literacy Capital.