APRIL 2021
SOLD TO
Lefty, Paris-based premium influencer marketing platform welcomes The Independents Group, backed by global investment firm Cathay Capital, as majority shareholder to nurture a very ambitious development plan: becoming the leading platform to analytically track the impact of influencer marketing strategies at a global level.
Founded in 2015 by Christian Rivasseau, Roman Berenstein and Thomas Repelski, Lefty operates a proprietary SaaS platform, enabling brands to discover, manage and measure collaborations with social-media influencers across TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Lefty’s technological and data capabilities have already seduced a loyal customer base of leading global brands in the luxury industry.
The Independents Group is a global group of agencies for industry leaders across luxury and lifestyle, comprising Karla Otto, K2, The Qode and now Lefty. The agency collective is powerfully positioned to offer streamlined strategy, creative, talent, influencer marketing, experiences and communications services for leading brands across key territories.
The partnership will see Lefty’s platform incorporated into each of The Independents Group’s 12 global offices. Two larger Lefty hubs will be opening in New York and Shanghai to service the North American and Chinese markets.
“Lefty has built a fantastic platform which will grow to become a substantial part of our group’s activities. What’s new and thrilling with this partnership is that it also adds a new layer of data insights and performance tracking that will complement our qualitative and personal approach to influence. It will give us the ability to scale up our capabilities”, says Isabelle Chouvet, CEO of The Independents Group.
“We have spent the last two years putting together a scalable technology platform that can integrate with any social network and we are thrilled to have a chance to develop it globally, including in Asia where our SaaS offer is still very new,” says Lefty’s CEO Thomas Repelski.