23rd Apr 2020 - 9:54am

LGB advises Whalar on new working capital facility

Submitted 23/04/2020 - 9:54am

LGB Corporate Finance has advised multinational advertising and media company Whalar on the establishment of a secured working capital facility from Praetura Commercial Finance, an alternative debt and equity funding business.

Based in London, with offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, Malaga, New York, and Singapore, Whalar is a modern media agency which employs around 100 people across its global structure. The company specialises in technology-driven influencer marketing and branded content, and is the only approved partner to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat within this space.

Whalar’s tech platform is home to over 5,000 influencers from across the world with a combined follower count of nearly 700 million social media users. The company’s talent roster is managed in-house, with Whalar working with them and a growing list of clients to produce campaigns which can be targeted according to specific demographics and locations.

Clients include Unilever, Tommy Hilfiger, Diageo, and Dior among others, while Whalar has also won the gold award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for its part in a worldwide campaign for the United Nations.

Fuelled in part by the rapid rise of platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tik-Tok in recent years, Influencer marketing has become one of the fastest-growing areas for the media and advertising industry. Business Insider Intelligence recently estimated that brands are set to spend USD15 billion in this area by 2022, up from USD8 billion in 2019.

The new debt facility with Praetura, on which LGB Corporate Finance advised as part of a GBP5 million mandate, will help Whalar both cement its market-leading position and allow the firm to continue to invest in its ambitious growth strategy over the coming years.

Angus Grierson, managing director of LGB Corporate Finance, says: “We are very pleased to have advised Whalar on securing this new funding facility to help ensure the company has the finance it needs for its planned expansion. Influencer marketing is an exciting, fast-growing USD15 billion market, within which Whalar has an array of opportunities to build its business and add more blue-chip companies to its global client base. This deal underlines our ability to help ambitious companies access the capital they need to deliver on their exciting growth strategies.”

Tags Deals & Transactions