Startups 100 top 10 firm Climb Online to create ‘digital umbrella’ with five acquisitions

Climb Online, the digital marketing agency founded by BBC Apprentice-winner Mark Wright, is to acquire five new businesses in a bid to form a new ‘digital umbrella’ of integrated services.

Set to launch in the Autumn, the Climb Group will see the agency – which was sixth in the Startups 100 2018 – expand its existing remit of services to create a “one-stop marketing super group” for both UK and overseas businesses.

Wright is accepting applications from UK media firms who desire to grow, with possible business acquisitions including video production, branding, web development and social media management agencies.

Launched in 2015 off the back of Wright’s Apprentice win, Climb Online currently offers SEO, pay-per-click (PPC) and social media advertising.

It is headquartered in London, but has offices in Bristol, Manchester and Essex.

Climb Online, which surpassed £1m in revenues in its first year of trading, has worked with over 400 clients to date (with a client retention rate of 92%) including Emirates, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Karma Cola, CV Library, Be Wiser, Groupon, and Dickies.

Young Gun Mark Wright told Startups.co.uk why he was “the most successful Apprentice winner there’s ever been” in September 2017, after Climb Online hit £4m turnover earlier that year. It’s now on track to turn over £7.5m in 2018 alone.

Wright commented: “In three and a half years, Climb Online has become one of the UK’s fastest growing and industry leading digital marketing agencies, where we as a team have worked extremely hard to offer our clients an innovative service and positive return on investment for campaign spend.

“The ‘Climb Group’ provides an exciting opportunity for existing media firms to join the Climb Online brand and support our vision in becoming an industry leading full-service marketing provider, whilst benefitting from our unique experience in scaling successful growth.”