EXCLUSIVE: Arcade, the management company of The Sidemen, has signed a host of creators, as it relaunches as an entertainment business ahead of its first European upfront.

Comedian Max Fosh, creator collective Friends From Work (comprising Arthur Frederick, Arthur Hill, George Clarkey and ItalianBach), John Nellis, Faith Kelly, Generation Football and Fallow Chefs have all signed with Arcade. The Sidemen, who recently saw member KSI exit, will continue with Arcade as well.

The new focus is turning Europe’s most popular and active creators into media brands that operate across content, commerce and culture, with IP development becoming a more central part of the mix.

Jack Croft & Will Murray, who co-founded upmarket London restaurant Fallow and run the Fallow Chefs channel, said: “We built Fallow by ripping up the rulebook – and we’ve tried to do the same with everything we post. Signing with Arcade makes sense because it’s a team built by creators, for creators, that lives and breathes the creator economy the way we live and breathe restaurants. We’re thrilled to be joining forces – we’ve got a lot of ambitious ideas, and now we’ve got the right people to help us pull them off.”

Today, Arcade is hosting Europe’s first creator media upfront at an invite-only event in London. This is expected to attract over 150 advertisers, brands and partners businesses, who will get exclusive previews of creator content slates, audience data and insights – similar to the U.S. NewFronts.

This comes after Arcade received a seven-figure investment from Lumina Media, and hired former Vice exec Matt Elek as CEO, with co-founder Jordan Schwartzenberger stepping away from the day-to-day running of the company, while retaining an active role.

“Arcade is executing an ambitious growth strategy to become the dominant player in the creator economy in Europe, which is demonstrated by our incredible new line-up of creator media partners,” said Elek. “We’ve built the entertainment company that creators actually need, and the wider market is only now starting to catch up.”

Besides its management arm, Arcade has a commercial business that works on partnerships with the likes of Virgin Media O2, Formula E and Unilever, while its advertising division, Creator Access, has a YouTube Partner Sales license, which it says guarantees ad sales against its creative talent. Joe Lamb is Arcade’s Commercial Managing Director, and Adam Smith leads the Creator Access division. 

“Creators aren’t just building channels anymore, they’re building entire media brands — long-form, IP, live, branded entertainment” said Schwarzenberger. “Arcade gives our partners access to the biggest creator media brands in Europe, which operate with the same scale and sophistication as a broadcaster or streamer, but with the trust and audience reach only these elite creators have.”

Schwarzenberger, Sam Uwins and Aaron O’Neill co-founded Arcade in 2021 as the management and ventures company for YouTube’ creator group giants The Sidemen. Lumina has a minority stake in the business, as Thomas Benski seeks to build a portfolio of investments, including in Carrousel Studios, Strike, Wayward Films, Creators Corp, Magna Studios and Arcade.

Benski, founder and CEO of Lumina, said: “We invested in Arcade because we believe they have the team, talent and ambition to build one of the defining companies in the creator economy. They’ve already built something special. Our role is to give Jordan, Matt and the team the backing, network leverage, growth company experience and resources to take that ambition to the next level, and we’re incredibly excited about what they can build from here.”

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