Social commerce agencies Orca and Sapphire Studios have merged to form a new entity called Third. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.  

Orca was founded in 2020 by Max Benator and Lauren Stevens and has worked with brands like Estée Lauder, e.l.f., and Mars, Inc. Sapphire Studios was founded in 2016 by Anish Dalal and Thomas Ma and has worked with hundreds of brands including Amazon, Coinbase and TikTok.  

The combined company has approximately 70 employees across Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Mexico City, and London, with Los Angeles and Mexico City serving as Third’s primary studio and production hubs. It provides an integrated social commerce offering spanning platform strategy, shoppable livestreams, social commerce operations, creator and affiliate commerce, and creative.    

Three of the four founders from Orca and Sapphire will step into senior leadership roles at Third – Benator as strategic advisor and Stevens as senior vice president of strategic partnerships; Orca’s Tim Ryan will serve as senior vice president of Commerce and Dalal as managing director, product & performance. Ma is pursuing other opportunities. 

Chad Hetherington will serve as CEO. In 2015 he founded The Stable, a commerce agency which was sold to Accenture in 2022.   

The deal was completed with financial backing from private equity firm Growth Catalyst Partners. 
 

Pictured above (l to r): Hetherington, Dalal, Benator, Stevens and Ryan.