Named as the B2C Branded Content Team of the Year for two consecutive years, and one of LinkedIn’s Top 25 Most Sought-after Startups in 2018, Jungle Creations is an ingenious startup that successfully cracked the formula for viral content. With their content receiving an average of 5.5bn views a month, Jungle Creations has grown to be a massive online community with over a hundred million followers from all over the world.

Company name: Jungle Creations

Founder: Jamie Bolding

Based in: London

Launched: 2014

Q: In simple terms, what does your startup do? 

Jamie: Jungle Creations is a media, marketing, and commerce business for the social age. Within our media arm, we own and operate a number of media brands that create and publish content across a variety of interest areas including news and entertainment, food, crafts, and beauty, that together have amassed over 110 million followers across social platforms. 

On the marketing side, we’re home to The Wild, a full-service creative agency that connects brands to communities, culture, and commerce. It offers creative solutions and campaigns, branded content, events, social media management, production, and influencer and performance marketing. 

Within our commerce arm, we operate a number of popular direct-to-consumer brands including standalone personalised product site, Lovimals.com; as well as products affiliated with our media brands including the likes of our ‘Twisted Store,’ which sells all things Twisted.

Q: What problem/s do you seek to solve or help? 

Jamie: The media arm of our business aims to entertain, inform, and connect with people, both online through the content we publish daily and in the real world through activations and experiences.

The marketing arm of our business aims to offer brands innovative and meaningful ways to connect with communities, culture, and commerce.

The commerce arm of our business observes digital trends and taps into our audience insights to develop products that are tailored to their preferences.

Q: Are you funded, and how?

Jamie: In early 2014, I received a government-backed £10,000 loan from Start Up Loans, and for four years, the company’s growth was supported entirely through the reinvestment of profits. In December 2018, we secured our first round of investment, which has allowed the business to fund new ventures and grow the team.

Q: What were you doing before you started Jungle Creations?

Jamie: While attending university in Manchester, I started several businesses. My first venture was smashuni.com, a ‘what’s on’ guide/student card; the second was ‘Wallpark,’ a ‘gumtree for students’; and the third ‘Busy Man’, was a delivery service of men's grooming products. 

After university, I moved to London, where I got a job in marketing at a drinks company. I lasted about three weeks before I decided it wasn’t for me, so I moved into my mother’s spare room at home and created the Facebook page VT which has since grown to have more than 25 million followers and is where Jungle all began.

Q: What inspired you to start Jungle Creations?

Jamie: I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and from an early age, I played around with buying and selling on Amazon and eBay. And this continued through university where I studied Business and experimented with various ventures before landing on the huge opportunity that I saw on social media. Following the success I had with the VT Facebook page, I decided to launch more media brands in other niches, which is what inspired the birth of Jungle Creations, the umbrella company that oversees everything we do.  

Q: What are your goals over the next five years? Where do you see yourself and Jungle Creations?

Jamie: Over the next five years, we’ll be expanding Jungle Creations’ international presence and we’ll be looking at potential acquisitions in the media, marketing, and commerce spaces. We’re also planning to build on our offline presence, which includes rolling out additional locations for our delivery-only restaurant business, Twisted London, and launching products aligned with our media brands. 

Beyond that, we want to ensure Jungle Creations continues to have a growing positive impact on the world via the content we create organically and with the brands we work with.

Images courtesy of Jungle Creations. To learn more, visit the Jungle Creations website.

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