The Kite Factory complete re-financing deal with OakNorth Bank
Key are pleased to announce that its portfolio company The Kite Factory has been supported by a new banking facility supplied by OakNorth. The introduction of term debt and a working capital facility was planned pre-investment to allow the business to continue its growth plan.
Founded in 2001, TKF offers advanced data analytics to its clients, providing media consultancy while also acting as an agent principal on behalf of clients for the purchase of media space across various platforms. Its data and insights arm, MUSE, focuses on unlocking and utilising clients’ customer data to develop highly effective growth strategies spanning beyond media placement and audience segmentation. It was this proprietary technology that last year helped the business attract GBP6.6m of investment from Key, enabling it to expand its offering to North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia, starting with an office in NYC.
Since our founding, we have been very fortunate to work with some of the world’s most established and well-known brands across a multitude of sectors. In both Key and OakNorth, we have found partners who understand our vision and ambitions for the future. The two worked seamlessly together, ensuring we were kept fully up to date throughout the entire process, and that a structure was developed that best suited our needs.
Stuart Blair, Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, says: “The UK’s advertising market is one of the largest and most established in the world. The sector has continued to grow steadily over the last seven years, being driven by the move from more traditional platforms such as TV and print advertising to online and social. TKF has been in a prime position to take advantage of this trend towards digital through the development of their proprietary data science and insights arms, MUSE. The team is incredibly experienced, has a clear USP in a growing market, and a clear vision for the future. We look forward to working with both them and Key in the future.”