MIAMI — LLYC has acquired Madrid digital shop Apache in a move to bolster the agency's capabilities.

The Apache acquisition will enable LLYC to broaden its digital offerings to clients across the US and Latin America as well as its home country Spain — furthering one of the firm’s top goals.

Apache has expertise in paid media, marketing automation, organic positioning, e-commerce, and marketplace and data analytics. The consultancy also develops its own technologies.

Apache’s founders — Jesus Moradillo, David Martin, and Luis Manuel Nuñez, all ex-Google employees — will continue to run the business while partnering with LLYC’s chief strategy & innovation officer Adolfo Corujo. Their first charge is incorporating Apache’s capabilities into LLYC’s operations so the agency can strengthen its offerings across regions expeditiously.

“The acquisition of Apache is particularly important for LLYC’s strategic growth and its market positioning,” said founding partner and chairman Jose Antonio Llorente.  “We are delighted to welcome a team with such innovative and entrepreneurial DNA that, in barely five years, they have developed a project that has been very well received in the market. It responds very directly to our clients’ needs, which is clear in the highly significant growth Apache has experienced since it was founded and the fact that it has been chosen as the best-rated digital agency on several occasions.”

Apache has expanded into a 40-person operation since its 2016 launch, having grown by more than 50% each year since its founding.

For LLYC, the deal with Apache marks the latest in a string of acquisitions across Spain, Brazil, the US and Chile, expanding its network to 16 offices across Iberia and the Americas. The firm is ranked 46th in the world, according to Provoke Media’s Global 250, with 2021 fee income of nearly $49 million.

A 2015 investment from MBO & Co helped fuel the growth. In April, however, LLYC bought back the private equity firm’s 30% stake in the company.