R/GA has made its first acquisition in its practically 50 yr historical past: AI system design studio Addition.
The deal comes lower than a yr after R/GA was bought by IPG and to a gaggle of its leaders, with majority backing from personal fairness agency Truelink Capital. Phrases weren’t disclosed.
It was funded by R/GA’s Innovation Fund, launched in March 2025 with $50 million to assist expertise investments, product improvement, partnerships, and acquisitions.
World CEO Robin Forbes described the acquisition as “a long-term strategic funding,” which the company is now capable of make as “a definite benefit of our independence” after being bought from IPG.
“As R/GA continues to embrace new know-how in service of creativity, we imagine AI presents maybe probably the most potent alternative but,” Forbes informed ADWEEK. “Addition, constructed from the bottom up as an AI system design and improvement studio, slots completely into this imaginative and prescient.”
Based in 2021 by Paul Aaron and Rick Barber, Addition has labored with shoppers together with Google, Amazon, NBCU, Unilever, Prudential, and The New York Occasions.
Addition’s 12-person staff, in addition to its community of AI consultants, will be part of R/GA, however the firm will retain its model. Forbes stated Addition will proceed to go to market with its unbiased providing whereas additionally lending its capabilities to R/GA extra broadly.
“This enables Addition to retain a degree of independence, permits them to proceed to service their core shoppers as regular, and permits them to collaborate on R/GA shopper work,” he defined.
Aaron and Barber will be part of R/GA’s international govt administration staff, reporting to Forbes and dealing alongside chair and international chief inventive officer Tiffany Rolfe, chief know-how officer Nick Coronges, and chief technique officer Melissa Jackson Parsey.
“Becoming a member of R/GA represents a chance for us to embed our method to AI inside a really international and revolutionary firm,” Aaron stated in an announcement shared with ADWEEK. “R/GA’s inventive tradition, historical past of innovation, and ambition to guide the intelligence age makes this the proper partnership. We’ve at all times needed to form the way forward for manufacturers and this acquisition will allow us to take action on a a lot bigger scale.”
Forbes stated the deal is a component of a bigger technique to deepen R/GA’s AI capabilities, positioning the company to design customized techniques and instruments for shoppers.
“Whereas R/GA has robust AI technique and product capabilities, Addition brings a really specialised, deep experience in AI system design and improvement,” he stated. “They offer shoppers entry to new, good minds who’re on the forefront of AI innovation, which is a uncommon expertise pool.”
R/GA and Addition already share shoppers, together with Google, and have labored collectively on earlier initiatives and pitches. The 2 firms have already started integrating their operations.
Wanting forward, Forbes stated extra acquisitions might observe.
“Our Innovation Fund is particularly designed for ongoing investments,” he stated. “It’s integral to our long-term technique, permitting us to pursue additional strategic partnerships and acquisitions, and to repeatedly evolve our capabilities within the quickly advancing AI panorama.”
