Two agencies merge with PE help to grab a larger share of a maturing marketplace

Digiday has learned that Podean, which bills itself as a marketplace agency, is acquiring once-competitor now partner Commerce Canal to form what it’s calling the largest independent marketplace agency, strategizing with clients including Mattel, Danone, Colgate-Palmolive, Luxottica, Steve Madden and AB InBev, among others. It will operate under the Podean name.

Podean is known for its strategic guidance on analytics, media, social commerce and content, and has a larger global reach, while Commerce Canal has a reputation for marketplace optimization strategy, brand, licensor and licensee management capabilities — and has the key AI tools to help build a new tech stack. The combined agency in 2025 will generate 80% of its revenues in the U.S. and 20% globally, according to Mark Power, Podean’s founder. On its own, Podean was drawing 35% of its revenue globally.

The acquisition, whose price tag was not shared by the principals, was facilitated by private equity firm Mountaingate Capital, which has invested in the likes of Tinuiti and Mars United Commerce, the latter now owned by Publicis. Totaling some 200 staffers across 17 countries, the goal is to grow internationally as well as in the U.S.

In the merged company, Power will focus on growth of relationships, talent and clients as chief growth officer in the merged operation, while Ryan Craver, Commerce Canal’s founder, becomes chief strategy and analytics officer. Travis Johnson, Podean’s CEO, will hold that same role in the merged agency.

“If you don’t have the ecommerce foundations to sell the right products in the right selling model, have the right customer experience, you could end up going down a very wasteful path where media is not getting put to use in the right way,” said Power. “An integrated approach, with strong operational foundations and logistics, and all those things that you need to get products into the hands of the consumer, are essential before you just spend more dollars on media.” 

Part of what makes the union work is Commerce Canal’s proprietary AI platform, Purvey.AI, which uses machine learning and AI to deliver planning and investment insights for customers, and which will form the basis of the merged agency’s tech stack.

“We appreciate [Podean’s] continued investment in offerings through their new acquisition, in particular a focus on applying AI to deliver the efficiency and effectiveness needed for us to maintain and expand our category leadership,” said Adam Kagan, svp of kids at Centric Brands, an apparel and accessories company, in a statement announcing the acquisition.

Amazon accounts for nearly 65% of that total marketplace spend in 2025, but according to Sky Canaves, principal analyst of retail and ecommerce at eMarketer, its share peaked at 71% in 2022, gradually declining as marketplaces from Walmart, Temu, and TikTok Shop cribbed bits of market share. 

Calling Podean and Commerce Canal two of the bigger players in a complex marketplace, Canaves said slowing growth across marketplaces could be a spur for the two agencies to come together. 

“There’s so much uncertainty in retail and ecommerce this year, and in particular, there’s some slowdown in growth taking place in ecommerce as well as in marketplaces broadly,” said Canaves. “But marketplaces still represent the big growth engine in e-commerce.”

Canaves also pointed out that the granularity of Podean and Commerce Canal’s consultative abilities are able to put it up against the growing commerce clout of agency holding companies like Publicis and Omnicom, both of which have made significant investments in the space (Publicis with Profitero, CitrusAd and Mars United Commerce, and Omnicom with Flywheel). 

The merged offering is “a bit of a broader offering, and it does look like it gets more into the nuts and bolts of day to day operations for the brands,” said Canaves.