Sapphire Studios

Canaccord Genuity Advises Sapphire Studios on its Sale to Growth Catalyst Partners

GCP has combined social commerce agencies Sapphire Studios and Orca to form Third, a modern-commerce growth company helping brands turn emerging platforms into real sales channels

Canaccord Genuity has advised Sapphire Studios on its majority investment from private equity firm Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP). GCP has combined Sapphire Studios with Orca, merging two of the fastest-growing social commerce agencies known for driving growth across TikTok and other creator-led platforms, to form Third, a new modern-commerce company built to help brands unlock their sales potential across the next generation of commerce platforms.

Sapphire Studios is one of the industry’s most proven performance creative companies. Founded by Forbes 30-Under-30 honorees Anish Dalal and Thomas Ma, the company has been trusted by more than 400 brands, including Amazon, Coinbase, and TikTok, and has driven in excess of $450 million in tracked revenue. Sapphire has been recognized as TikTok’s #1 U.S. Creative Partner and specializes in turning culture into conversion through performance-driven creative, user-generated content (UGC), and social-first production at scale. With its proprietary Creative Engine testing platform and deep expertise across all major advertising platforms, the company runs global campaigns and has established itself as the go-to partner for brands seeking measurable results from their paid social and digital campaigns.

Orca has extensive experience helping brands drive sales and relevance through TikTok Shop. Founded in 2020 by Max Benator and Lauren Stevens, it was one of the first TikTok Shop agencies established in the U.S. and has become one of the leading livestream and social commerce providers for globally recognized brands, including Estée Lauder, e.l.f., and Mars, Inc. Operating in the U.S., UK, Europe, and Mexico and working across every major ecommerce platform, Orca provides brands with shoppable livestreams, short video content, affiliate management, shop operations, and best-in-class social commerce strategy. Additionally, Orca is the agency behind social commerce conference, SoCom, one of the industry’s premier gatherings, which took place in Venice Beach on February 26, 2026. The event convened hundreds of leading voices across social commerce, including brands, creators, platforms, agencies, and investors.

Third brings together an integrated social commerce offering spanning platform strategy, shoppable livestreams, social commerce operations, creator and affiliate commerce, and performance creative at scale – giving brands a single partner to build, operate, and grow revenue across commerce platforms, including TikTok, Whatnot, Snap, Meta, and eBay Live. Third is the latest venture by entrepreneur Chad Hetherington, founder of The Stable, the commerce agency he grew from startup to over 500 employees before selling to Accenture in 2022.

The combined company will launch with approximately 70 employees across Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Mexico City, and London, with Los Angeles and Mexico City serving as Third’s primary studio and production hubs. The founders from Orca and Sapphire will step into senior leadership roles at Third: Benator as Strategic Advisor; Stevens as SVP of Strategic Partnerships; Orca’s Tim Ryan as SVP of Commerce; and Dalal as Managing Director, Product & Performance.

The deal was completed with financial backing from Growth Catalyst Partners. GCP’s investment and sector experience will help expand existing capabilities and support continued M&A, as Third builds its differentiated modern-commerce platform.

GCP is a middle market private equity firm investing in information, marketing and tech-enabled services businesses. The firm’s strategy involves targeting growth segments of industries and identifying and building market-leading companies with breakout potential. GCP partners with company founders and owners, along with top executives within those industries, and provides capital, proprietary deal origination and operating expertise to the management teams. GCP's team has deep sector expertise and has led hundreds of transactions and successful investments in services businesses for more than 20 years. Since the firm's founding in 2015, GCP has completed in excess of 100 acquisitions across its industry-leading platform companies.