Acceleration Community of Companies Acquires Influencer Marketing Agency Pixly

By Olivia Morley 

Michael Nyman's headshot is pictured.

Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC), the group launched by ex-holding company leader and Adweek Media All Star Michael Nyman, has acquired the influencer marketing agency Pixly. The influencer agency joins ACC’s agency group, which includes MKG, Pink Sparrow, Stripe Theory and the group’s in-house consultancy, ACC Advisory.

ACC has grown quickly since launch a few years ago, increasing its revenue by 64% last year. It’s also nabbed new blue-chip clients including Ralph Lauren, Nike, HBO, LinkedIn, CBS,GrubHub, Propel and WeTransfer. Before the Pixly deal it acquired Stripe Theory, a strategic marketing agency with data expertise.

Nyman, ACC’s chairman and CEO, has had his eye on this segment of the industry for several years, he told Adweek—and was intrigued by Pixly’s tech offering and its client-focused service model.

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“There’s often this almost over overboard talk about tech, but if you don’t have the service component figured out, then the tech is not as effective,” said Nyman.

ACC would have expanded into the influencer space earlier, according to Nyman, but they hadn’t yet found the right agency to bring in.

Pixly CEO Gustav Lindell and COO Race Johnson founded the company in 2017. Since then, the agency has activated over 10,000 unique influencer videos and driven 8 billion views. It primarily focuses on video work and specializes in platforms including YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram to deliver custom projects for clients, which it manages from beginning to end.

The co-founders will continue to run the agency even as it sits under the ACC umbrella.

“A lot of people do a lot of talking and these guys really just focus on the doing part,” said Nyman of the founders.

Pixly’s clients include Epic Games, miHoYo, Opera Software, Manscaped, NordVPN, Warby Parker, Keeps and Casetify.

ACC agencies often work together as a collective to meet client needs and operate under a single P&L model. Nyman viewed Pixly as a good opportunity to expand the offering as ACC scales up to provide clients a full-service offering.

“We saw common opportunity there, that we mutually want to grow that area out.  We are seeing with a lot of our work right now, the bundling of services,” Nyman said.

ACC brought in Pixly as the influencer market becomes increasingly important to marketers. The space is projected to grow from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $48.5 billion in 2024, according to data from the Winterberry Group.

Ronald Camhi and Harpreet Walia of Michelman & Robinson, LLP led the transaction for ACC and GP Bullhound represented Pixly.

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