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Acceleration Partners Acquires Influencer Response and Volt Agency to Strengthen Influencer Capabilities

December 2022

Denver, Dec. 9, 2022 – Mountaingate Capital (Mountaingate) portfolio company Acceleration Partners (AP), the leading global partnership marketing agency, has announced it is bolstering its influencer marketing offerings with the acquisition of Influencer Response, one of the industry’s first direct response-focused influencer agencies, and Volt Agency, a boutique performance marketing firm specializing in the growth of direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses. Influencer Response and Volt had previously merged in May of 2022. This strategic acquisition marks AP’s fourth since partnering with Mountaingate in 2020, and the second of this year.

 

The deal makes Acceleration Partners the world’s only agency with the ability to deliver end-to-end affiliate, influencer, and partnership services at scale.

 

“The depth of our newly combined offerings is unmatched in the industry. Beyond the immediate enhancements to our influencer practice, this acquisition significantly increases our capacity to support new and existing customers with a full range of outcome-driven marketing opportunities,” said Matt Wool, CEO of Acceleration Partners.

 

Influencer Response and Volt both bring significant strengths to the Acceleration Partners platform. These include Volt’s unique influencer amplification capabilities, which marry influencer content with powerful paid social strategies to drive additional awareness and maximize impact across channels, and Influencer Response’s advanced influencer program management capabilities that enable brands to effectively run and measure large-scale influencer campaigns.

 

“Influencer and affiliate marketing are converging now more than ever. We’re excited to join forces with Acceleration Partners to improve our collective value by offering a full suite of integrated solutions that help brands take their performance-based programs to the next level,” said Josh Butowsky, Founder of Influencer Response.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Acceleration Partners and offer our expertise in influencer amplification,” said Ryan Waranauskas, founder of Volt. “By joining under one company, we are creating a one-stop shop with the potential to revolutionize partnership marketing.”

 

About Acceleration Partners

Founded in 2007, Acceleration Partners is the recognized leader in partnership marketing and a six-time Global Performance Marketing Award (GPMA) winner in the “Best Affiliate and Partner Marketing Agency” category. Acceleration Partners manages programs in 40+ countries for more than 170 brands including Target, GoToMeeting, Noom, ButcherBox, and Reebok. Acceleration Partners’ fully remote global staff of 300+ maintains a singular focus on delivering exceptional outcomes; and delivers deep and data-driven expertise in all key partnership marketing tactics, including affiliate, influencer, content, mass media, and B2B partner marketing. In addition, Acceleration Partners has received awards for its performance and exceptional culture, including “Best Agency” and “Best Team in Performance Marketing (“Performance Marketing Awards”), US Changemakers (“PerformanceIN”), “Best Workplaces” (Inc.), “Best Places to Work” (Glassdoor), and “Most Committed to Work-Life Balance” (Digiday). For more information on Acceleration Partners, visit www.accelerationpartners.com.

 

About Mountaingate Capital

Mountaingate Capital, a Denver-based private equity firm investing in the marketing services, business services, specialty distribution and specialty manufacturing sectors. Mountaingate specializes in building and empowering companies with strong growth potential and engaged leadership teams. Mountaingate’s focus on organic growth coupled with its proven customer-centric buy-and-build approach and shared equity ownership with management creates more value for the end customer, while forging stronger, more collaborative, and more successful partnerships with management teams. Mountaingate targets investments in new platform companies with $5 million to $25 million of EBITDA, as well as add-on acquisitions of any size. For more information on Mountaingate, please visit www.mountaingate.com.