Levanta, the Seattle-based affiliate and creator platform for e-commerce, announced in early April the acquisition of Perch+, one of the earliest affiliate networks built specifically for Amazon sellers. 

The deal brings hundreds of brands and publishers into Levanta’s marketplace and consolidates two of the longest-standing players in the Amazon affiliate space under a single platform.

Ian Brodie, co-founder and CEO of Levanta, has been circling this problem since 2020, when he co-founded Grovia, a creator and affiliate recruitment firm acquired by Acceleration Partners in 2022. Levanta followed, built on the Amazon Attribution API at a moment when most sellers were still managing affiliate relationships through spreadsheets. The company now employs roughly 100 people and reports 60% year-over-year growth.

“Our bread and butter is the overlap between affiliate and creator marketing, where brands offer affiliate commissions paired with flat-fee paid placements to create a hybrid model that attracts a broad set of partnership opportunities,” Ian says.

The Problem Affiliate Is Designed to Solve

The strategic logic behind the acquisition runs deeper than marketplace share. Ian argues that Amazon sellers have historically had almost no marketing channel that they truly own. Sponsored product ads dominate their spend, costs rise every year, and the relationship between seller and customer remains mediated entirely by Amazon’s algorithm.

“Every year these costs rise and get more expensive,” Ian says. “What a lot of sellers and suppliers in this retail media space desire is a marketing channel that they actually own. Affiliate is that solution.”

The distinction matters because affiliate and creator relationships compound in a way that paid ads do not, according to Ian. A brand that builds a network of creators reviewing its products owns those relationships directly, can reinvest in them, and is not renegotiating with an ad exchange every quarter. He describes this as unlocking retail media spend, directing budgets that have historically funded PPC campaigns toward a channel that generates durable returns.

“Enough people aren’t thinking about that currently,” Ian says, “and it’s certainly a focus for us.”

What Perch+ Brings In and What It Was Missing

Perch+ originated as a business unit inside Perch, an Amazon brand aggregator, before being opened to outside sellers. It was early, and that counted for something. But the platform was built on a technical foundation that predated the Amazon Attribution API, which limited how quickly it could scale.

“While they were very early, they weren’t built on extremely scalable technology,” Ian says. “When Levanta came on the scene, we were built on very scalable technology and were able to grow a lot faster.”

For Perch, running an affiliate network was never the core business. The company’s primary focus remained on owning and operating Amazon brands, making Perch+ an attractive candidate for divestiture once a capable home emerged. Conversations between the two companies began in January 2025 and moved quickly.

“They wanted to find a home for this business unit that could provide better long-term value to those customers,” Ian explains. “That’s exactly what Levanta could offer.”

AI Sends People to Google. Then They Go to YouTube.

The broader commercial case for affiliate and creator investment is being reshaped by AI. Ian frames the shift carefully: AI is accelerating the top of the funnel, not replacing creator content further down it.

“People are increasingly using AI for that initial ideation, almost like brainstorming,” Ian says. “But they still go toward creator content to validate their purchasing decisions.”

The dynamic runs in both directions. Levanta’s research suggests that much of what powers AI product recommendations traces back to affiliate and creator sources: Wirecutter, BuzzFeed, Reddit, and YouTube. A brand that invests in that ecosystem is not just reaching consumers directly. It is seeding the content that large language models (LLMs) surface when buyers ask what to purchase.

“Affiliate and creator is becoming a great way to not only get featured in LLMs and AI responses, but then you still need that authentic point of view,” Ian says. “Those two things together are causing our ecosystem to expand at a rate that we have not seen before.”

The Omnichannel Case: One Platform for Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart

Ian describes a recurring pattern among the enterprise brands Levanta works with: multiple tools, multiple teams, and creators confused about which portal to use for which channel.

“They have a separate tool for D2C affiliate, a separate tool for Amazon affiliate, and a separate tool for creator. Maybe three tools for creator and different teams managing all of them,” Ian says. “It’s chaos.”

Levanta now covers Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart within a single system, following integrations launched over the past year. The platform supports creator recruitment, flat-rate paid placements, performance-based commission structures, product sampling, and attribution tracking across all three channels. 

The Perch+ acquisition adds inventory to that marketplace at a point when Levanta is already claiming the leading position among third-party Amazon affiliate networks.

For creators and publishers migrating from Perch+, Ian says, the practical difference is access to a broader brand roster, improved tracking, faster payouts, and a storefront feature that Ian says is on the verge of launch, enabling creators to build branded pages around their Amazon affiliate promotions.

What Comes Next for Levanta

Ian describes 2026 as potentially Levanta’s largest year by a notable margin. The product roadmap includes AI-powered natural language search, allowing brands to describe the type of creator they need and surface results algorithmically, and tools that help sellers track how their affiliate and creator programs are influencing their visibility inside AI responses. 

Additional marketplace expansions are in development beyond the current three channels, though Ian declines to name them.

The Perch+ acquisition fits within a consolidation thesis rather than a diversification play. Levanta is not expanding into adjacent services. It is concentrating on becoming the infrastructure layer for marketplace affiliate and creator commerce, adding sellers, publishers, and features to deepen the network effect on a single platform.

“Just because we’re doing marketplace expansion doesn’t mean we’re turning our backs on our bread and butter,” Ian says. “It’s the opposite. We’re doubling down, investing more than ever within Amazon.”

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