Singapore-based creator and IP management and licensing company Gushcloud International has completed a majority acquisition of TalentPlus Dubai, a UAE-based talent management and influencer marketing firm, per Marketing-Interactive. The transaction follows an initial investment made 15 months ago and represents Gushcloud’s continued expansion across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Under the agreement, TalentPlus will rebrand as Gushcloud TalentPlus and focus on managing MENA creators for global representation while representing and monetizing international creators and intellectual property in the region.

Michel Chahda will continue as CEO of Gushcloud TalentPlus and has been appointed partner at Gushcloud International. Gay Carr, Chief of Staff at Gushcloud International, has relocated to the UAE to co-lead the unit while continuing to oversee Gushcloud’s multi-year partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office.

“The UAE has done a great job in recent years marketing itself to creators and is becoming one of the most strategic markets globally for creators to live, work, play and build their businesses and family offices out of,” Althea Lim, co-founder and group CEO of Gushcloud International, said in a statement. “Hence, this majority acquisition is a strategic step forward for us at Gushcloud to have more control in this large growing market.”

Chahda said the combination would enable the company to “create a global path and more monetizable opportunities for the creators we manage and represent exclusively.”

According to Strategy& analysis, MENA digital content is projected to account for 46% of the region’s estimated $22 billion media spend.

Expansion Plans

The TalentPlus acquisition follows Gushcloud’s August announcement of plans to establish a regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. The company told Tubefilter it would work with local governments and organizations to “identify and invest in top local creators within MENA to turn them into global creators via Gushcloud’s Creator Venture Program.”

Gushcloud currently operates in 13 territories across Asia, the United States, and Europe. The company acquired the multichannel network asset of Paris-based Wizdeo in June, integrating over 500 creators and 700 million monthly views.

Lim previously stated that Gushcloud’s ultimate goal is to “represent $1 billion of annual income for creators” globally.

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