Nest
London
Website: Nest
Founders: Will Ashton & Luke Jonas
Year founded: 2017
UK headcount: 50-99
Offices: London
We’re bootstrapped, we’re profitable and we’re confident.
Profile
Ecommerce marketing agency Nest was right to put all its eggs into one nest back in 2017, with a sharp focus on retail helping it to win a significant share of UK high street brands and take its deep retail expertise across the globe.
At the helm of this internationally expanding agency are co-founders Will Ashton and Luke Jonas, who felt that a vertical specialism would outperform the in-house teams and traditional agencies that were trying to do everything for everyone at the time.
Over the past eight years, Nest has evolved into a 60-strong team with over 40 clients, including Reiss, Trinny London, Mint Velvet, TFG Brands and Crew Clothing. This specialist knowledge of retail, plus the advantages of having its own in-house creative studio, has proved to be an attractive proposition so far, helping Nest achieve record growth of 75% in 2024.
Winning its first US client, Hims, in 2022 was a particularly big milestone for Nest, as was becoming the first UK independent agency to sit on Meta’s advisory board the following year. More recently, Nest won the pitch for fashion retail group TFG London, which brings brands including Hobbs, Phase Eight and Whistles into the fold.
Technology, of course, has helped Nest to stay at the forefront of change and offer clients innovative solutions, such as automated ads management tool Hummingbird, which can measure and predict creative fatigue. Nest’s recently-launched UGC ‘Nest Creator Programme,’ meanwhile, has become its fastest-growing service with 10 clients on-boarded in the six months since launch.
Signalling its growth ambitions, Nest has been making some key hires this past year, including a new chief operating officer, director of growth and a number of developers to help scale its own technology.
There has been no external investment to-date and it is not currently on the horizon – though there has been plenty of unsolicited acquisition interest.
“We’re bootstrapped, profitable, we don’t need cash and we’re confident," says Will, who is feeling bullish as 2025 gets underway. “There’s a lot more we can do.”