Avenir Global Acquires Marker Collective: £70.4M Cash Deal

AVENIR GLOBAL, a Montreal-based group of specialist communications firms, acquired Marker Collective from Next 15 Group plc on November 5, 2026. Marker holds the technology agencies Archetype, Outcast and Nectar plus the Delve AI media intelligence platform. Next 15 reported £70.4 million in cash consideration. Marker adds about 650 employees and 20 offices, taking Avenir past 1,500 employees.

Last updated: November 5, 2026

What did Avenir Global buy from Next 15?

Avenir Global bought Marker Collective, a group of three technology communications agencies and one proprietary AI platform, from Next 15 Group plc. Avenir announced the acquisition on November 5, 2026, and Next 15 said in a same-day announcement that it had completed the sale.

Avenir describes itself as a Montreal-based holding and management company of specialist communications firms. Next 15 is an AIM-listed growth consultancy trading under the ticker NFG. Marker was one of its communications businesses until the sale closed.

How much did Avenir Global pay for Marker Collective?

Avenir Global paid £70.4 million in cash for Marker Collective, according to Next 15's announcement of the sale. Next 15 said the deal values Marker at an enterprise value of £70 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis, and that the cash received is subject to customary completion accounts adjustments.

Earned First, which covered the deal on November 5, 2026, reported the price as roughly US$94.9 million. The Globe and Mail separately reported a figure of roughly $160 million for the transaction without a currency conversion note in the excerpt EPR reviewed, so the sterling figure from Next 15 is the one to rely on.

Dividing £70.4 million by Marker's roughly 650 employees gives about £108,000 per employee. That is an EPR calculation from two announced numbers, not a metric either company disclosed. Neither announcement EPR reviewed gave Marker's revenue or profit, so a revenue multiple cannot be calculated yet.

Who are Archetype, Outcast and Nectar?

Archetype, Outcast and Nectar are the three technology-focused communications agencies that make up Marker Collective. Avenir says they advise some of the world's leading technology companies, and Marker says it serves more than 450 clients across them.

Archetype is the best known of the three. O'Dwyer's reported that it was formed through a merger of the tech agencies Text100 and Bite while both sat inside Next 15, and Marker's own description now places it alongside Outcast and Nectar as a technology integrated communications agency. Marker's offices sit in the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Avenir said each agency keeps its own expertise, client relationships, identity and leadership team. Day-to-day operations continue as usual, and clients keep working with their existing agency teams. Marker as a whole continues to operate separately under Helena Maus, its CEO.

What is Delve and how will Avenir use it?

Delve is Marker Collective's proprietary AI-powered media intelligence platform, which Avenir says turns real-time news and social media coverage into executive-ready insights. Marker built Delve to serve as the shared technology layer across its three agencies and their more than 450 clients.

Avenir's stated plan goes further than keeping Delve inside Marker. The group said it sees Delve becoming a shared platform across all of its agencies, supporting client service, campaign measurement and more efficient workflows. Avenir CEO Jean-Pierre Vasseur told The Globe and Mail that the near-term priority over the next year is integrating the Marker teams.

The practical implication is that a holding company known for specialist, independent-minded firms now owns a measurement and monitoring tool it can offer to all of them. Whether agencies outside Marker adopt Delve, and how quickly, is the first thing to watch after the integration year.

How big is Avenir Global after the deal?

Avenir Global now has more than 1,500 employees and says it ranks among the 15 largest communications firms in the world by revenue. That ranking is Avenir's own claim, made in its announcement and repeated by Vasseur to The Globe and Mail.

Marker's roughly 650 employees mean the acquisition accounts for up to about 43 percent of Avenir's headcount, using 1,500 as the base (an EPR calculation, since Avenir said "more than" 1,500). Avenir said the deal came in its 50th anniversary year. The group's portfolio after the acquisition looks like this, based on Avenir's description.

Region	Avenir Global firms
Canada	NATIONAL Public Relations (nine offices coast to coast), Time & Space
United States	Padilla, including SHIFT Communications, Joe Smith and FoodMinds
Europe and Middle East	Madano, Thinks, Hanover (London, Brussels, Dublin, Dubai, Riyadh)
Healthcare	AXON (London, Toronto, Copenhagen), Cherry (London)
Technology	Marker Collective: Archetype, Outcast, Nectar and Delve

Avenir's earlier large purchases include Padilla in 2018 and Hanover in 2019, according to O'Dwyer's and The National. Marker is the group's first acquisition built around a single sector, technology, and its first to bring a proprietary software platform with it.

Why did Next 15 sell Marker Collective?

Next 15 sold Marker Collective to simplify its portfolio and concentrate on a smaller number of businesses. Next 15 CEO Sam Knights said the sale sharpens the group's focus and strengthens its ability to invest behind fewer scalable, high-quality businesses, and called the deal an important milestone in the transformation of Next 15.

The sale follows a series of earlier moves. On October 28, 2025, Next 15 agreed to sell its majority-owned capital markets advisory businesses, The Blueshirt Group and Blueshirt Capital Advisors, to their founders and senior management, keeping a minority stake. Next 15 also confirmed in June 2025 and again on November 4, 2025 that it was in discussions about disposing of a selected number of brands.

Next 15 has bought and built agencies for decades. Its 2009 purchase of the New York agency covered in EPR's M Booth profile is one example. The Marker sale shows the group now treating portfolio reduction as a strategy in its own right.

What does the deal mean for tech PR?

The deal moves three tech PR agencies from a listed consultancy to a holding company that says it will keep them separate. For clients and agency leaders, four points matter most.

1. Marker clients keep their existing agency teams, because Avenir and Marker both said day-to-day operations continue as usual.
2. Delve may become a shared measurement tool across Avenir's agencies, which would put AI-based media monitoring inside a group that includes NATIONAL, Padilla and Hanover.
3. Specialist holding companies are consolidating a fragmented market. The Globe and Mail described Avenir as one of several platforms doing this in an industry where firms were historically employee-owned.
4. Integration is the near-term test. Vasseur said the next year is focused on bringing the Marker teams together, so cross-selling and Delve rollout are likely to come later.

Agency owners weighing their own exits can see how advisers describe this market in EPR's directory of M&A advisory firms for marketing and PR. Individual profiles include Houlihan Lokey's marketing services team, Canaccord Genuity's marketing M&A group and Madison Alley. None of these firms is reported to have advised on the Marker sale.

Key takeaways

• Avenir Global acquired Marker Collective from Next 15 on November 5, 2026.
• Next 15 reported £70.4 million in cash and an enterprise value of £70 million.
• Marker brings Archetype, Outcast, Nectar and the Delve AI platform, about 650 employees and 20 offices.
• Avenir now has more than 1,500 employees and says it ranks among the 15 largest communications firms by revenue.
• Marker will keep operating separately under CEO Helena Maus.
• Marker's revenue and profit were not disclosed in the announcements reviewed.