Byte, a UK marketing technology that specializes in digital creative work, has now joined the international digital agency Dept. The move will help both agencies strengthen end-to-end digital services for clients across the globe and follows a significant growth by Byte since it was set up back in 2014.

With offices in New York, Berlin and London, Byte was co-founded by Alex Miller and Jamie Kenny. Its work includes augmented reality, chatbots and automation, among other areas. Meanwhile, Dept is a Dutch agency group that has helped brands such as Patagonia to grow and accelerate their digital business.

Dimi Albers, CEO at Dept, said, “Alex, Jamie and the team have established a high reputation for innovative advertising campaigns, pioneering AR effects and advanced chatbots. Their ability to grow fast while operating at the intersection of creativity, technology and data makes this a perfect mix, and we can’t wait to start working.”

Meanwhile, Byte’s Founding Partner, Alex Miller, said in a statement: “We’ve become part of Dept to accelerate global growth and supercharge our tech offer with access to over 500 engineers across the world. We’re excited to help Dept achieve its vision of becoming the leading digital agency in the world.”

Miller and Kenny explained they decided to sell as Byte was gaining “a lot of momentum” and they wanted to service new markets. Now part of Dept, Byte’s branding and management team will continue as before. Byte’s Founding Partners will work closely with Dept’s Board of Directors, in addition to UK and US teams.

Dept has been expanding through acquisition after receiving investment from private equity – most recently from The Carlyle Group in 2019. Acquisitions have included Amazon specialist factor-a in Germany in 2018, digital shop e3Creative in the UK in 2019 and digital branding agency Basic in the US in 2020.

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