LADbible owner buys Gen Z agency Uncovered in deal worth up to £33.8m

LBG Media, the Manchester-based owner of LADbible, has bought a 75% stake in Uncovered, the Gen Z, social-first creative agency founded by Chris Cookson and Catherine Orr. The deal was first announced in June.

LBG is paying £26.8m in cash upfront, plus an earn-out of up to £7m tied to Uncovered's performance this year and next, taking the potential total to £33.8m. Put and call options cover the remaining 25%. To fund it, LBG signed a new debt facility of up to £50m with HSBC UK.

Cookson and Orr, both formerly of London agency Union, founded Uncovered in London in 2017. It now has a team of around 120 and designs, produces and runs social strategies for brands including KFC and Taco Bell, with deep TikTok and Instagram expertise, VFX and AI-enabled creative workflows. In 2025 it generated £10.2m in revenue and £2.7m in adjusted EBITDA, on the back of multi-year client contracts and a newly launched US operation.

Both founders stay on, Cookson as CEO and Orr as chief creative officer, and Uncovered keeps operating as an independent brand.

Why this deal makes sense

LBG built one of the biggest young-adult audiences in the world through publishers like LADbible, UNILAD and Betches. It already knows what works on social. Uncovered gives it the agency side: the creative and production capability to make that content for brands directly, under contract.

That matters because LBG wants more direct revenue, rather than relying on advertising sold against its own channels. Uncovered's multi-year client deals and US client base push it further in that direction, and LBG expects the deal to boost earnings per share by double digits in its first full year.

For Uncovered, the logic runs the other way: access to LBG's audience data, reach and US presence to help win bigger clients. Cookson has said the goal from day one was to build "the best social first creative agency in the world."

What founders can learn from this

This is what a premium agency exit looks like. Uncovered had a clear specialism, real profitability, recurring multi-year contracts and a growing US business. Those are exactly the things that get a buyer to write a large cheque.

The structure is worth studying too. Selling 75% now, with an earn-out and options on the rest, lets the founders take serious money off the table while keeping skin in the game and their independence. It also means the buyer pays more if the growth story comes true, which helps both sides agree on value.

Finally, look at who the buyer is. Media owners, not just agency groups, are now buying creative agencies to turn audiences into client revenue. If you specialise in a platform or an audience, your buyer list may be wider than you think.

Want to know which buyers would pay a premium for your agency? Talk to Agencies.co.

Sources: Prolific North, BusinessCloud, Alliance News via AJ Bell