Two former AKQA global chief creative officers, Hugo Veiga and Diego Machado, have launched a new agency that mixes traditional commission work with equity stakes and revenue-sharing tied to client sales, the pair told CMO Insider this week. The company, called !F Creative Capital, aims to align creative work more directly with business outcomes by accepting partial payment in ownership and sales-linked deals as well as cash.
!F Creative Capital combines conventional commissions with equity partnerships and agreements that tie the agency’s compensation to client revenue, the founders said. As examples, the firm took a stake in the superfoods brand Authentic Fruits in a deal that includes a three-year creative engagement, a share of sales and additional equity tied to sales performance. It also holds equity in CheckMy.Music, an AI platform that scans songs for plagiarism, and has an equity partnership on a project led by former soccer manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Veiga and Machado said the model responds to a long-running concern among creatives that large holding companies have shifted emphasis toward businesses such as media buying, data, technology and AI services because those offerings are easier to package, measure and sell repeatedly than bespoke creative work. The founders said they want to more directly connect ideas and outcomes.
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Former chief creative officers from AKQA launch new company seeking equity compensation
“In many of the creative industries, everyone is too busy doing decks, doing keynotes, and losing the connection with the final thing,” Diego Machado said, describing the motivation behind the new venture.
!F Creative Capital is also building its own consumer brands and projects. The company has launched SNIFF, a pet-focused business that lets dogs sample foods before owners buy them, and Baitts, a toothpick brand. It is co-producing a feature film due for release next year and plans to run an eight-week “School of Creative Entrepreneurship” to help people develop ideas into businesses, the founders said.
The agency continues to accept commission work and has taken on clients including Corona and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Globe Sports Award; Veiga and Machado said they are reinvesting revenue from those engagements into the equity-focused side of their business and in-house projects. !F Creative Capital is self-funded, currently employs around 15 people across seven countries, and draws on a broader network of contributors, they said.
“You have an idea, and you give it for free”
Machado framed the equity approach as a way to avoid the common pattern of creatives handing over ideas without retaining ownership. “A lot of times you have an idea, and you give it for free, or you push to make it happen without owning that,” he said.
Adland has seen similar equity-focused arrangements before: London studio Uncommon — in which Havas bought a majority stake in 2023 — has taken equity in the compostable coffee pod company Halo and the finance app Communion; in 2010, former Deutsch executive Mike Duda cofounded a hybrid early-stage venture firm and creative agency that evolved into Bullish; and Anomaly began incubating and acquiring stakes in brands in the 2000s and is now part of Stagwell.
Brian Wieser, CEO of advisory firm Madison and Wall, said the equity-for-creativity model exists in the industry but is not widespread, in part because venture investing requires different skills from running an agency. “Most people who can do venture well focus on venture capital,” he said. “But the right person with the right relationships can make this happen.”
Veiga said the long-term ambition for !F Creative Capital is to build its own brands and businesses to the point that commission work is no longer the core revenue source, potentially transforming the firm into a holding-company–style operator for the brands it helps create and scale.
