IDHL completes strategic acquisition of leading ecommerce consultancy, Vervaunt

IDHL, one of Europe’s largest digital commerce and performance agencies, has announced the acquisition of London-based ecommerce consultancy, strategy, and performance agency, Vervaunt.

Founded in 2017, Vervaunt has established a global reputation working with premium brands including Mulberry, APC, Paul Smith, Represent, and Champion.

Following IDHL’s acquisition of The MTM Agency in February, this move supports the group’s further growth ambitions across UK and US markets and enhances IDHL’s capabilities across performance, e-commerce, and data intelligence. Vervaunt brings over 70 specialists across related services, with expertise in e-commerce, paid media, social, and affiliate marketing, as well as creative services and community building.

The acquisition reinforces IDHL's position as the UK's leading growth-focused digital agency and marks a significant milestone in building a best-in-class global ecommerce and performance offering. The addition of Vervaunt bolsters IDHL's top-tier accreditations across Meta, Google, and Shopify, as well as partnerships with other key technology platforms, including Adobe, BigCommerce, and Kentico.

As part of the deal, and reflecting the group’s commitment to continuous innovation, IDHL and Vervaunt will jointly invest more than £1.5 million to further their industry leadership in AI and emerging technology over the next year. The investment will accelerate the development of proprietary tools, extend the group’s digital product suite, and advance a product-led AI strategy for 2026. These initiatives will boost IDHL’s already high technical expertise and client performance, increase efficiency, and create additional scalable IP to drive IDHL’s next phase of global growth.

Vervaunt operates the events program Pulse, including its annual e-commerce summit, hosted in London and New York, which brings together ambitious, high-growth retailers and brands to explore the latest e-commerce innovations.

This latest acquisition sees IDHL grow to around 500 people with teams in London, Leeds, Manchester, Southampton, and New York. Vervaunt will join The MTM Agency and Fostr brands within the IDHL Group, with Paul Rogers, Managing Director, and Josh Duggan, co-founder, joining IDHL’s senior leadership team.

The transaction is supported by IDHL’s existing investment partner Bridgepoint, which partnered with the company in 2021 via Bridgepoint Development Capital, a lower middle-market fund focused on supporting fast-growing businesses across Europe.

Lewis Sellers, IDHL CEO, said:

Vervaunt has built an outstanding business that combines deep ecommerce expertise with exceptional paid media performance. Its talented team and impressive client roster strengthen our ability to deliver world-class digital commerce solutions. With this acquisition, we’re bringing together leading specialists across strategy, performance, and technology to help ambitious brands grow. I’m thrilled to welcome Paul and Josh to our leadership team as we continue to build the global agency we know IDHL can be.

Paul Rogers, Managing Director, Vervaunt said:

This is a huge move for both Vervaunt and IDHL and I’m really excited about the combined mission. We’ve spoken to several potential partners over the last 12 months, but IDHL was the only one that gave us the opportunity to play a part in the overall strategy while continuing to focus on strengthening Vervaunt. They also backed our thinking on the AI/product service front and ultimately gave us something we could commit to long-term. I’m confident this move will allow us to build a better product and create new, bigger opportunities for our team.

Josh Duggan, Co-founder, Vervaunt said:

This deal represents an exciting opportunity for both IDHL and Vervaunt to accelerate the next phase of our evolution together and deliver even better value for our clients. We’re proud of the business we have built and incredibly grateful to our amazing team for the hard work laying solid foundations. We saw a rare opportunity to create a market leader on a much bigger, global scale and 10x our investment in tangible AI solutions and digital products. We’re confident we can stay focused and drive significant improvements across our product and client services as part of this move.

Robin Lawson, Partner at Bridgepoint, added:

The acquisition of Vervaunt is another key strategic move in building IDHL’s leading capabilities in paid marketing, e-commerce, and AI. Bridgepoint is pleased to further support Lewis and the IDHL team in realizing their ambitious vision.