SAMY buys Atlanta's Get Engaged in low nine-figure deal to crack the US

Ten years after starting out at Atlanta Tech Village, the founders of Get Engaged have sold their influencer and social agency to SAMY, the Madrid-born social-first group, in what both sides describe as a low nine-figure deal.

No exact price has been published. The companies told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the value sits in the low nine figures, made up of cash, equity and money for growth, and Adweek reported the same range from a person familiar with the deal. Adweek also reported that the three founders keep meaningful ownership in the combined business.

Who is Get Engaged?

Alex Dermer, Cam Fordham and Ben Hiott founded Get Engaged in 2016. It now employs more than 120 people, around 70 of them in Atlanta, with offices in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. The agency covers influencer marketing, social, entertainment and talent partnerships.

Its client list includes DoorDash, Raising Cane's, Sephora, Perplexity, Universal Music Group, EA and Sazerac. It is best known for culture-first work built for social feeds rather than TV, including DoorDash's 2026 Super Bowl week campaign with 50 Cent and a Carl's Jr. campaign with creator Alix Earle around the 2025 Super Bowl.

Why SAMY wanted it

SAMY is the bigger, more global business. It has more than 1,200 staff and works in over 55 markets, with services spanning social strategy, influencer marketing, research, creative, content production and social technology. Private equity firm Bridgepoint is its majority shareholder.

The US has been its stated priority for a while. SAMY recently appointed Anabela Bonuccelli as US managing director and won global work from Unilever Foods and Barilla. Buying Get Engaged gives it US clients, local teams and talent relationships in one go, rather than building them office by office. Chief executive Juan Andrés Elhazaz Walsh put it plainly, telling Influencer Marketing Hub that "scaling our U.S. footprint remains SAMY's primary growth objective."

Get Engaged keeps its name and its Atlanta headquarters and becomes SAMY's US arm. Dermer continues as CEO, with Fordham and Hiott staying on. Asked by the AJC about job cuts, the founders said their focus is on growing the team.

Why this one is worth studying

The structure is the story for founders. Get Engaged's owners took a large cheque but kept a real stake, kept the brand and kept the city. That combination usually signals a buyer paying for future growth and needing the founders to deliver it.

It also shows what a cross-border buyer looks for in a US agency: a recognisable client list, work people actually talk about, and a team spread across the markets that matter. Get Engaged had all three.

Thinking about how a buyer would see your agency? Start the conversation at Agencies.co.

Sources: MediaPost, Adweek, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Influencer Marketing Hub