Sydney-based Cavalry Freelancing, a talent platform for advertising and digital professionals, is merging with global content production and technology group &FRIENDS.
&FRIENDS, which recently raised $1.8 million, enables agencies and businesses to tap into a global community of world-class makers, creating on-the-ground teams in any market.
Commercial details of the merger haven’t been revealed.
Current Cavalry GM Rich Barlow will continue to lead the APAC operations, while CEO Dave Bentley moves into a global role as Co-CEO.
The move by Cavalry comes at a time of huge change in the creative industry, with a shortage of talent.
Bentley: "We realised that a great marketplace was only one piece of the talent puzzle for companies, the talent challenge is far broader, and requires a more holistic approach.
“The fact is that 90% of companies know they need to build a more agile and adaptive workforce, but less than 80% are actually able to find the solution to tackling this, by doing anything about it.
“This inertia is because the problem has traditionally been hard to solve, getting filed under ‘too hard’.
“The merge with &FRIENDS enables us to give our clients the holistic solution they need – binding every stage of the talent journey – including sourcing, onboarding, managing and payment – into a frictionless customer experience that takes away the pain, time and cost."
&FRIENDS CCO Matt Carroll: “Right now the demands being placed on the creative industry are unprecedented – with businesses being challenged to produce more output than ever – faster and more cost-efficiently.
“The traditional response to this is that it’s ‘not possible’. So we challenged ourselves to create a tool that makes it possible. By combining the expertise and experience of Cavalry and &FRIENDS, we believe we’ve done that.
“Creating an engaged, global community of world class makers, helps our industry solve the chronic shortage of quality talent being experienced across the board. Indeed this is a talent shortage that ALL industries are facing.
“What excites me about the synergy between Cavalry and &FRIENDS is that it allows us to solve a fundamental, complex problem, very simply – while enabling clients and partners to create premium quality content faster, and at previously
unthinkable costs. ”
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