A private equity giant just snapped up a creator company, and it points to the next phase of investment in the sector

H.I.G. Capital, an investment firm with $76 billion in capital under management, has formed a platform called Waveborn to acquire creator-economy companies, beginning with the management firm Jake Rosen Entertainment. The effort is run through H.I.G. Small-Cap & Growth, an arm of H.I.G. Capital. Terms for the JRE transaction were not disclosed, according to Business Insider.

The strategy is to build on JRE by acquiring businesses across the core components of the creator-economy ecosystem: brand relationships, content production, and creator monetization. Waveborn did not disclose the size of its capital commitment but pointed to Whalar Group as the model for the type and scale of company it seeks to build. Whalar spanned an agency, talent management, and influencer-technology businesses, and was valued at $400 million in 2025 before selling its agency to Accenture Song earlier this year.

H.I.G. Growth managing director Eric Tencer said the firm's conviction was shaped by industry data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and by personal experience. H.I.G. views the businesses serving brands and creators as fragmented, while creators are building more complex companies that require greater expertise. Tencer said the firm chose a talent management agency for its first acquisition because putting creators at the core would help define its growth roadmap. JRE founder Jake Rosen said he wants to avoid losing creators to rival agencies that can offer more services, and he remains bullish on mid-tier creators, noting that high-end brands are reluctant to commit their full budgets to a single mega creator.

Private equity's role in the sector remains small but is growing, largely through backed acquirers such as Fixated (funded by Eldridge Industries) and Wonderloom Media (backed by Content Partners), according to James Creech, founder of advisory firm Quartermast. Creator-economy companies have historically not met private equity's size and maturity requirements, and strategic buyers such as ad holding companies and talent agencies have often paid more. Rosen said he chose the PE route after a sales process this year because it would let him stay involved in future M&A and JRE's growth, having felt corporate buyers wanted him to adapt to their processes. Creech expects other PE and growth equity firms to follow H.I.G.'s thesis, and according to Quartermast Advisors, 2026 is the busiest period on record for the sector with 118 deals so far, compared with 93 in all of 2025.