• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Publicis Groupe announced Wednesday that it has acquired influencer marketing platform Captiv8, with plans to partner the company with Las Vegas-based marketing company Influential to power its influencer offerings across the globe.

With Captiv8 now under the vast umbrella of companies owned by Publicis Groupe, the French multinational advertising and public relations giant says it will launch the world’s largest creator network. 

Along with its millions of everyday creators, Captiv8 has spent the past 10 years building its top-tier creator ecosystem, attracting 800 enterprise brands, 15 million creators -- about 95% of all creators with 5,000 or more followers.

Paired with Influential -- another Publicis-owned company -- coverage will also include 90% of all influencers, with over 1 million followers.  

Captiv8’s reach extends to 120 countries, adapted to local languages and currencies, logging about 2.5 billion social posts per year. 

Publicis Groupe will be able to connect its clients with Captiv8’s network, while also providing them with access to the company’s influencer platform, now largely powered by Perplexity AI. 

Last week, Captiv8 founder and CEO Krishna Submaranian spoke with MediaPost about the company's recent partnership with Perplexity AI, stating that the search engine’s Sonar models have been integrated into Captiv8’s core workflow, offering clients AI-powered creator vetting, an AI agent and more. 

According to a Captiv8 spokesperson, there will be no disruptions with Captiv8’s Perplexity AI partnership under new ownership. 

Per the new acquisition, Publicis Groupe says that Captiv8’s platform “will underpin Publicis’ global Connected Influencer offering and be powered by Epsilon’s CoreID” -- an identity graph of 250 million protected consumer IDs that clients can use to enhance first-party data to recognize market intent and provide customers with the ability to run activations across social platforms, media channels and markets in real time. Epsilon is also owned by Publicis Groupe.

Moving forward, Publicis Groupe plans to improve clients’ conversions across social media, commerce and affiliate channels within a single environment, while providing full-funnel measurement solutions. 

This acquisition is valued at $150 million, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.