Creator management consolidation: Fixated-Ellify deal

Creator "management" is having a bit of an identity crisis. Half the industry still thinks it's 2018: get you brand deals, take 20%, call it a day.

Meanwhile, the actual money has been drifting elsewhere - platform payouts, owned IP, commerce, live, licensing. And now the suits are funding the agencies that want to play that game.

What happened

Fixated, a creator-focused talent company started in 2024 by Zach Katz (music industry vet, also previously ran operations at FaZe Clan) and creator Jason Wilhelm, is going on an acquisition run.

They raised outside capital from Eldridge in two steps: $10M in March 2025, then a much bigger $50M investment in December 2025. The stated plan: use that war chest for targeted M&A.

The first deal is in: Fixated is acquiring Ellify, a Canada-based talent management business with a roster of nearly 200 creators. Names tied to Ellify include Foltyn, XiaomaNYC, Steak, Nevada, MandJTV, and The Besties.

Ellify's sweet spot is gaming creators - especially Roblox, Minecraft, and Pokémon - and the acquisition also brings along Ellify's team and its influencer marketing arm.

Fixated has also been pitching a broader "creator ecosystem" approach: a content studio plus a big distribution layer they describe as access to roughly 25,000 micro-creators used to push content at scale (they claim that network can drive billions of views per month). More acquisitions are already in the pipeline.

Why creators should care

This isn't just "another agency bought another agency." It's consolidation. And consolidation changes the deal you get offered.

Gaming is the tell here. Roblox alone sits at tens of millions of daily active users, Minecraft is a forever-platform with a massive active player base, and Pokémon is basically a cultural utility at this point. If you can reliably reach younger audiences in those worlds, you're not "a creator." You're distribution. And investors love distribution.

The uncomfortable part: when money gets involved, your channel can start being treated like inventory. The comfortable part: if a management company actually knows how to grow content across platforms (not just sell integrations), that can save you years of trial-and-error and a lot of expensive hiring mistakes.

Mentor moment: if your manager can't explain your retention graph without sweating, you don't have a manager. You have a commission collector.

Also, these roll-ups are a quiet signal about where the creator economy is headed: fewer "solo creators with a Gmail," more creator-led businesses with real ops. That can mean better support - editors, packaging, analytics, paid media, licensing help, live events. It can also mean tighter contracts and more pressure to become "IP" on someone else's balance sheet.

What to do next

Audit where your revenue actually comes from. If brand deals are 20-30% (common for many big creators), you need representation that can grow the other 70-80%: platform revenue, membership, merch, digital products, licensing, live.
Ask every potential manager one blunt question: "What would you change about my content strategy in the next 30 days?" If the answer is vibes and motivation, pass. If they talk formats, packaging, posting cadence, collaboration targets, and distribution, now you're talking.
Get specific about distribution help. "We have a network" is not a plan. Ask what they've shipped recently: how many clips, where, what view-through, what conversion, what the feedback loop looks like when something flops.
Protect your upside in writing. If a company wants a cut of revenue beyond brand deals (platform payouts, merch, IP), make them earn it with clear deliverables, review windows, and termination clauses. Big capital loves long contracts. You don't have to.
Don't confuse 'studio access' with 'business building.' A studio helps you film. A business system helps you scale. If they can't help you hire, systemize, and forecast - cool, that's production support, not management.