Clutch, a marketplace for digital marketing services, has been acquired by online social network Plaiced, Clutch co-founder Madison Long told TechCrunch.
The transaction closed earlier this week, but terms were not disclosed.
“The creator economy is growing rapidly and we knew that an acquisition would be our next most powerful step to stay competitive and really gain market share,” Long told TechCrunch.
Long and Simone May founded Clutch in 2020 to connect people with businesses looking for marketing and content creation. We last interviewed the duo in August 2022, after the company closed a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Precursor Ventures. At the time, the company had more than 200 creators on its platform and a waiting list of 3,000. Since then, more than 600 people have signed up to use Clutch, and the company has worked with more than 70 brands, including Hearst Media, Long said.
But there were setbacks along the way. Clutch restructured in June last year, cutting staff to prioritize profitability, which it eventually achieved this year. During that time, May stepped down as CTO to spend more time with his family, and Long took over as CEO. Long said he considered continuing to run the company independently, but the content production industry was changing rapidly, especially with the addition of GenAI. “The deciding factor for us to sell was finding the right partner to take us further,” Long said.
She was introduced to Placed CEO Kaveh Shoremanesh at a networking event in early May, and the acquisition talks began. She felt Placed was the right partner because her values aligned with Clutch's. “There are very few platforms in our industry that prioritize paying creators what they deserve, and they don't compromise on that,” she said.
Shomanesh is also excited about the deal, saying it will help Plaiced expand its network by working with more creators. “It also provides more monetization opportunities for creators who leverage their existing online community network,” he told TechCrunch.
As a new founder, Long read as many M&A books as she could, spoke with recently exited founders, and weighed the pros and cons of letting go of the company she'd built. “Nothing can fully prepare you for your first exit,” she says. “I'd been at Clutch for five years, three of those full time. We'd hired over a dozen people and raised $2 million, and yet this was, without a doubt, one of the most difficult chapters of our journey to date.”
Clutch's team is small, currently just four people, and while some have decided to stay and others have found other work, Long plans to stay on as an advisor for at least 18 months.
“It is our number one priority to ensure their working relationship is not affected by the acquisition,” she said.
Long says her next personal goal is to spend more time with her family and “take time to take care of myself, rest and reflect.”
This article has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of May's name.