!F Creative Capital launches equity-based agency model in advertising

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!F Creative Capital equity model

Highlights

!F Creative Capital adopts an equity-based agency model, acquiring stakes in clients like Authentic Fruits and CheckMy.Music instead of relying solely on creative fees.
The agency reinvests commission revenue from brands such as Corona and Globe Sports Award into its equity-based ventures and operates as a self-funded firm with approximately 15 staff across seven countries.
!F Creative Capital is launching in-house brands SNIFF and Baitts, coproducing a feature film for next year, and planning an eight-week School of Creative Entrepreneurship to foster new business ideas.

Agency model ties creative work to ownership

As first reported by Business Insider, citing CMO Insider, Veiga and Machado say !F Creative Capital is built around taking equity in businesses it believes can scale, instead of relying only on upfront creative fees. The founders say the structure is designed to connect the value of creative work more directly to sales and long-term business performance.

The agency has already taken a stake in superfoods brand Authentic Fruits through a deal that includes a three-year creative engagement, a share of sales, and additional equity linked to commercial results. It also holds equity in CheckMy.Music, an AI platform that scans songs for plagiarism, and in a new project led by former Chelsea FC and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.

Alongside those partnerships, !F Creative Capital is taking on commission-based assignments for brands including Corona and Cristiano Ronaldo's Globe Sports Award. The company says it is reinvesting that income into its equity-focused activities and internal ventures, and it operates as a self-funded business with around 15 staff across seven countries and a wider contributor network.

Industry pressures shape long-term expansion plans

Veiga and Machado say the business emerges from frustration with an agency market where holding companies often prioritize media buying, data, technology, and AI services because those offerings are easier to package and measure than bespoke creative work. Machado says many creative teams lose touch with the end product while focusing on presentations and pitches, and the pair argue that ownership offers a better way to capture the value of ideas.

The company is also launching its own brands, including pet company SNIFF and toothpick brand Baitts, while coproducing a feature film scheduled for release next year. It is preparing an eight-week School of Creative Entrepreneurship aimed at helping people turn ideas into businesses.

Veiga says the longer-term goal is for the company to rely less on commission work as it develops its own brands and increasingly becomes its own client. That ambition places !F Creative Capital alongside earlier experiments in the sector, including equity plays by Uncommon, Bullish, and Anomaly, although Madison and Wall CEO Brian Wieser says such models remain uncommon and usually depend on the specific relationships and capabilities of the people running them.

In our earlier coverage of the Philippine Social Security System’s equity portfolio performance, we outlined how the pension fund said it has generated P204 billion in realized gains and dividend income since 1968 while defending recent unrealized (paper) losses. SSS argued that mark-to-market declines are not cash losses unless positions are sold below cost, and highlighted how dividends and long-term holdings in names such as PLDT helped offset volatility as it targets higher investment income.

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