A global innovation agency created by four key industry figures has now gone live having been backed by £5m worth of investment.
Plus1 Assembly has been built by LADbible co-founder Arian Kalantari and former Nuevo CEO Jax Davey, alongside Lee Humphreys, who served as CEO of creative & digital at HH Global and Simba Investments founder Jake Brocklesby, who has led over £170m in assets under management.
The company is a brand innovation agency for founders, investors and marketers looking to ‘build what’s next’.
Having already received £5m in funding from Brocklesby’s Simba Investments, it has onboarded notable clients including SportTech Rezzil and Dubai-based CodeBlaze.
Plus1 Assembly has also acquired AI consultancy firm Layfe to further expand its growth.
It aims to help brands find a new edge and is built around three hubs – live signal engine HALO, consultancy LAYFE and insight-led fund RISE.
Its clients have the flexibility to use any hub it finds necessary and benefit from workflows and automation tools, which aim to support high-quality outcomes delivered quickly and at scale.
“This one’s been in the works for a while…and we’re finally live,” wrote Kalantari on LinkedIn.
“I spent 12 years building LADbible Group into one of the biggest youth media brands in the world. I wasn’t sure anything would match that early momentum. Building teams, winning customers, creating an incredible culture.
“But over the last few months, this one has come pretty close. We’re disrupting the outdated model in 4 ways – AI at the core, deep cultural understanding, fast-moving execution, focused on outcomes, not hours.
“It’s taken months of late nights. Whiteboard sessions. Thousands of voice notes. All to bring this vision to life.
“And I’ve loved every minute working with co-founder Jax Davey whose hunger, drive and obsession with excellence has brought this vision to life. We’ve assembled an A-team of strategists, creatives and operators who just get it.”
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CEO Davey, who is also an ex-Royal Marines Commando, added: “We launched Plus1 Assembly today. It started with frustration. A sketch on a whiteboard. A midnight voice note sent many months ago.
“Now it’s real and is backed by £5 million in investment. I’ve been lucky in my career, from serving in the Royal Marines, to building small agencies with big purpose, to leading creative, strategy and data at one of the world’s biggest marketing activation agencies.
“What I’ve learned? The hardest things are always the ones worth doing. They take more. But they give more too.
“Plus1 is the most challenging and exciting thing I’ve ever built. A new kind of innovation agency, for brands that want to move at the speed of culture.
“Faster. Smarter. More collaborative. More accountable. Always plugged into what’s now and what’s next.
“Co-building this with Arian Kalantari has been an absolute privilege. His instinct for culture and his pace changed everything.
“We’ve pushed each other daily, and built something that already feels less like a company, and more like a mission. As a founder, there’s nothing better than seeing the thing that once lived in your head… come alive.”
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