Talenthouse acquires Coolabi to deepen its creative proposition within the IP and brand licensing space

• Talenthouse AG, the technology platform serving a creative community of over 18 million members working with the world's most innovative brands, has successfully completed the acquisition of IP experts Coolabi Group Limited.
• Together, both businesses plan to leverage the vast IP owned by Coolabi and connect both ventures within the Creator Economy space initially through gaming and the metaverse. Additionally, this will open up new and exclusive monetary opportunities for Talenthouse's Creative community.
• Talenthouse's next phase in its strategy is to launch a one-stop-financial app specifically for Creatives in 2023. This will allow Creatives to be paid quickly, fairly, and allow them to Create Freely.
• Talenthouse clients include Universal Music Group, Unreal Engine, Bombay Sapphire and HBO who tap into Talenthouse's creative community for creative, visual assets to use in their marketing materials.
• Coolabi owns the IP for over 2,000 titles across 200 book series focused on the children's and young adult (YA) demographics. This includes the IP for the globally-renowned Warrior Cats series and BAFTA-winning television series, Clangers.
• Jeremy Banks, CEO of Coolabi, Tim Ricketts, COO of Coolabi, and Chris Snowdon, MD of Working Partners, join creative, financial and advertising serial entrepreneurs Clare McKeeve, CEO of Talenthouse, and founders Maya Bogle and Roman Scharf on the leadership team to push the group into a new era of creative endeavours.

LONDON, Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since Talenthouse completed the acquisition of Coolabi who cover several lucrative markets including UK, US and China, both businesses are strategically working together to deepen Talenthouse's proposition within the Creator Economy space and diversify its offering amidst an unsteady market.

With market conditions looking to continue in a period of instability across the world, Creatives are even more challenged in securing opportunities for paid work and visibility in front of brands. Talenthouse seeks to provide further work for Creators on its platform with the increased opportunities deriving from Coolabi.

The acquisition is a pivotal moment for the Creator Economy space that Talenthouse lives in. IP for children and young adults (YA) is in high demand as nostalgia content increases in popularity across books, television and films appealing to Millennials and Gen Z demographics who are repurposing 'old school' content to amass huge followings on social media.

The Creator Economy is truly thriving in 2022, with more than 303 million people around the world now considering themselves to be creators. It is not limited to social media influencers and YouTubers – it is a global phenomenon of working creative professionals. The best study on the number of creators globally is from Adobe issued in August 2022. Adobe estimates these 303 million creators are across nine key markets that they surveyed, and less than 15% of those are influencers. It is estimated to be worth in excess of $2.8 trillion and is heavily driven by digital advertising needs; the market is vast and growing.

Coolabi Group has created and licensed to publishers over 2,000 book titles across some 200 book series to publishers and actively manages the intellectual property it creates in order for it to achieve international recognition and commercial success as brands. For example, Warrior Cats has so far been played 200 million times on Roblox by some 2 million unique users a month and has been viewed on YouTube over half a billion times all just in the last year. In addition, Coolabi's books are licensed in over 40 languages and its award-winning TV shows are licensed in over 140 countries.

Clare McKeeve, CEO of Talenthouse AG, comments: "The creators of the future are embodied in Coolabi's extensive fan base, including Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Their influence, creativity and engagement will future proof the evolution of Talenthouse's membership base and its reach to partners and customers alike, opening up avenues for our creatives to augment their content creation model.

The team is thrilled to welcome Jeremy Banks and the Coolabi team into the Talenthouse family and combine their content generation capabilities and younger audience reach to supplement the 18 million members within Talenthouse's community. We strongly believe that the acquisition will result in new routes to market and maximise our potential within existing international markets."

Jeremy Banks, CEO of Coolabi, comments: "Talenthouse boasts an engaged community of diverse creative talent from all over the world, which perfectly aligns with the ambitions and missions we have at Coolabi. This acquisition brings both of our powerful businesses and communities together to enable the creation of more stories, platforms and content that excites and resonates with people across the globe. We're so pleased to be joining Clare and her team."

About the acquisition of Coolabi

Having acquired an initial 33% shareholding in Coolabi in 2021, Talenthouse has acquired the remaining 67% and now owns 100% of the share capital of Coolabi. The completion was made possible by the use of new debt facilities from Kartesia, our institutional partner, to refinance the existing vendor loans.

Coolabi has been consistently EBITDA positive for several years and is expected to remain so for 2022, and its business model allows it to create content at minimal investment cost.

For further information, you can refer to the ad-hoc posted on the 6th July 2022.

About Talenthouse AG

Talenthouse AG is a technology platform company, working with the world's largest creative community of over 18 million members, to produce the highest quality digital content for many of the largest companies globally, including Netflix and Universal Music Group. Talenthouse AG, which unites the creative platforms of Talenthouse, EyeEm, Ello, Creative Commission, Coolabi, Zooppa and Jovoto, is leading a structural shift in the way that creative content is produced, employing a platform business model to source content at the scale and quality required to keep pace with consumer demand in the digital age. In doing so, it is also opening up opportunities for a much larger pool of creative talent.

The company is registered in Switzerland and operationally headquartered in London with offices in LA, NYC, Berlin, Venice, Peterborough and Philadelphia. For more information visit: www.business.talenthouse.com

About Coolabi

Coolabi Group is a leading independent international media group and rights owner specialising in the creation, development and brand management of children's and family intellectual property rights.

As a global leader in the creation of children's fiction and an award-winning creator of children's TV and apps, story is at the heart of everything we do at Coolabi.

Warriors, Beast Quest and Rainbow Magic are but three of the c.200 book series and c.2,000 titles we have created and licensed to publishers. Lifetime global sales exceed 200 million copies. Clangers, Scream Street and Poppy Cat are just part of an award-winning roster of hit animated and live action TV shows developed and produced in house, and enjoyed the world over. And Warriors, Beast Quest and Clangers represent part of a digital slate that has been downloaded over 16 million times as apps and is being viewed on YouTube over 40 million times a month.

SOURCE Talenthouse AG