Leeds-headquartered IDHL has completed the acquisition of London-based ecommerce consultancy, strategy and performance agency Vervaunt — a move that further accelerates the group’s growth ambitions across the UK and US.
Founded in 2017, Vervaunt has built a global reputation working with premium brands such as Mulberry, APC, Paul Smith, Represent and Champion. The agency brings more than 70 specialists across ecommerce, paid media, social, affiliate marketing, creative services and community building.
The deal follows IDHL’s acquisition of The MTM Agency earlier this year and strengthens its capabilities across performance, ecommerce and data intelligence. IDHL said the addition of Vervaunt also enhances its top-tier accreditations across Meta, Google and Shopify, alongside partnerships with Adobe, BigCommerce and Kentico.
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As part of the transaction, IDHL and Vervaunt will jointly invest more than £1.5m over the next year to advance their industry leadership in AI and emerging technology. The investment will support the development of proprietary tools, extend the group’s digital product suite and underpin a product-led AI strategy for 2026.
Vervaunt also operates Pulse — an events programme and annual ecommerce summit held in London and New York — aimed at high-growth retailers exploring the latest innovations in the sector.
The acquisition takes IDHL to around 500 staff across London, Leeds, Manchester, Southampton and New York. Vervaunt will join The MTM Agency and Fostr within the IDHL Group, with Managing Director Paul Rogers and co-founder Josh Duggan joining the senior leadership team. The deal is supported by IDHL’s investment partner Bridgepoint, which first backed the group in 2021.
IDHL CEO Lewis Sellers said: “Vervaunt has built an outstanding business that combines deep ecommerce expertise with exceptional paid media performance. Its talented team and impressive client roster strengthen our ability to deliver world-class digital commerce solutions. With this acquisition, we’re bringing together leading specialists across strategy, performance, and technology to help ambitious brands grow. I’m thrilled to welcome Paul and Josh to our leadership team as we continue to build the global agency we know IDHL can be.”
Paul Rogers, Managing Director of Vervaunt, said: “This is a huge move for both Vervaunt and IDHL and I’m really excited about the combined mission. We’ve spoken to a number of potential partners over the last 12 months, but IDHL was the only one that gave us the opportunity to play a part in the overall strategy whilst continuing to focus on strengthening Vervaunt,. They also backed our thinking on the AI / product service front and ultimately gave us something we could buy into long-term. I’m confident this move will allow us to build a better product here and create new and bigger opportunities for our team.”
Co-founder Josh Duggan added: “This deal represents an exciting opportunity for both IDHL and Vervaunt to accelerate the next phase of our evolution together and drive even better value for our clients. We’re so proud of the business we have built and incredibly grateful to our amazing team for all the work that’s been put in to give us solid foundations as a business. We saw a rare opportunity to ultimately create a market leader on a much bigger, global scale and 10x our investment in tangible AI solutions and digital products. We’re confident we can stay focused and drive lots of improvements across our product and how we service clients as part of this move.”
Bridgepoint partner Robin Lawson said: “The acquisition of Vervaunt is another important strategic plank in building out IDHL’s leading capabilities in paid marketing, e-commerce and AI. Bridgepoint is delighted to be adding further support to Lewis and the IDHL team in realising their ambitious vision.”
