Zambezi, the LA agency Kobe Bryant helped start, just sold a majority stake to Manna Tree, a private equity firm that has never owned an agency. Manna Tree invests in consumer health and wellness brands: Health-Ade, Good Culture, Vital Farms, Gotham Greens. So why buy an ad agency?
Ayelet’s team at Jones-Spross was on this one, so we got the inside story.
The agency. Zambezi launched in 2006 out of Wieden+Kennedy, with Kobe Bryant as founding investor and early client. Jean Freeman bought Kobe out in 2015, became CEO in 2017, and broadened the shop well beyond sports into creative, media, and production for brands like Liquid I.V., TaylorMade, Club Pilates, the NFL, and Under Armour.
The deal. Zambezi ran a real process, but the winner already knew them. Manna Tree and Zambezi had worked together on Health-Ade for years before any deal talk. Jean was clear throughout: the next home had to be additive, not duplicative. A buyer that had never owned an agency fit that brief exactly.
What Manna Tree is really buying. Christian’s read: a center of excellence. PE firms build them for sales, talent, and ops. Manna Tree just built one for marketing, removing the time its brands spend finding, pitching, and managing agencies, while Zambezi gets a steadier pipeline. Operating leverage on both sides.
The founder lesson. If you’re lucky enough to have multiple offers, capital is the easy part. Study how a buyer’s portfolio behaved in a downturn and talk to the founders they’ve backed. Choose who you want in the foxhole when things get hard.
Quick hits
SAMY acquires Get Engaged in a low nine-figure deal: the third European buyer of a US creator agency in three months, after Mar4/Ad Results Media and Acast/Backyard.
Sailor merges with Shamrock-backed Mutiny, pairing social-first entertainment work with gaming. (Palazzo advised Sailor.)
Salesforce buys Listen Labs for a reported ~$2B, roughly 20x capital raised, for AI-run and simulated customer interviews.
The takeaway: PE is buying services right now, and agencies that sit in the hot categories, creator, retail media, and creative, are commanding attention.
Full breakdown on the podcast. The deals we couldn’t cover are in the subscriber-only Substack.
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