Studiospace raises £1.5m seed round to accelerate growth

A company vowing to end the days of Mad Men and transform how marketing agencies are hired has raised £1.5m of funding from Fuel Ventures.

When was Studiospace started?

Founded in 2022 by Pete Sayburn, Gideon Hyde, Robin Scarborough, Phil Kohler and Paul Bowman, Studiospace is a tech platform used by major brands to find innovative new talent in the creative, marketing and digital spaces. Its clients include major brands such as Aviva, JLR and Gala Games.

What is Studiospace?

Studiospace connects major brands with independent, specialist agencies in the creative, digital and marketing arenas via its smart platform.

Founded by Pete Sayburn and team of serial entrepreneurs, the business has signed up major brands including Aviva, Jaguar Land Rover, Gala Games and AXA. It has also recruited over 100 independent agencies spread across 12 countries and 36 cities.

“We saw a chance to disrupt the marketing industry and went for it,” said Sayburn. "Big brands want new talent, but smaller indie businesses can’t cope with the admin and red tape that big brands demand from their suppliers. As a result, hiring agencies is still too ‘Don Draper’, with a beauty parade of well known names grabbing all the best briefs. This Mad Men era needs to come to an end and Studiospace has the tech to achieve that.”

The investment will be used to grow the business in the UK, and in Australia, where it has a growing office in Sydney, as well as to develop and further automate the Studiospace tech platform.

Senior and chief marketing officers (CMOs) use Studiospace to post briefs and criteria for new projects. The platform matches them to relevant suppliers, based on their choices.

Crucially, the company also provides standard contracts and terms of conditions as well as handling payments, removing the administrative issues which often prevent small companies from working with bigger brands.

Sayburn believes he is disrupting how the marketing industry works.

“Digital technology should mean a senior marketer can stipulate precisely what they want and then find the perfect match in a few clicks,” he said. "Yet, at the moment, that’s not happening as digital hasn’t yet transformed how agencies are hired. We are attempting to bridge the gap between the biggest brands and those small but exciting indie agencies which are full of talent and original ideas. We are now effectively the fastest growing marketing services company in the world, with 2000 people in our network after just eight months. This investment from Fuel will enable us to continue to grow.”

The view from Fuel

• Shiv Patel, Investment Director at Fuel Ventures:

"Having seen StudioSpace's growth since they began trading at the start of this year, we were delighted to have the opportunity to invest in such an exciting business. The management team have exceptional experience both within the industry and also through having successfully scaled and exited a previous business. This coupled with the tier 1 enterprise clients they have using the platform already made a compelling investment case for us. We look forward to working closely with StudioSpace in the coming years to ensure the Company's continued success."

If you are an entrepreneur looking for investment, please apply here or email your deck at alexb@fuel.ventures or reach out to me on LinkedIn.