My Code

Advisor to Multicultural Media & Marketing Services Company My Code on its Majority Investment from Ariel Alternatives

Partnership intended to accelerate Fortune 500 brand investment in multicultural audiences

Canaccord Genuity is pleased to announce it was an advisor to leading multicultural media and marketing services company My Code on its majority investment from Ariel Alternatives and its private equity fund, Project Black®.  Ariel Alternatives acquired a 58.5% stake in My Code from private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners and other investors at an enterprise value of $400 million. Falfurrias, the company’s current management and employees, and other investors have retained minority stakes in the business.  My Code was originally acquired in 2021 by Falfurrias in a transaction led by Canaccord Genuity.

Founded in 2015, My Code offers solutions to brands that meet the rapidly growing need for multicultural marketing, with a mission to build a future for media and advertising where everyone is authentically represented. Formerly known as H Code, the company was initially created to provide offerings for advertisers to reach U.S. Hispanic consumers. Since its launch, My Code has expanded its products to address Black, AANHPI, and LGBTQIA+ audiences, among others. The company’s network includes a deep collection of more than 1,200 consumer media platforms that reach diverse audiences, in addition to owned and operated properties such as 110-year-old El Diario, the U.S.’s oldest Spanish-language newspaper; Remezcla, one of the most influential digital media brands for the Latine community; and advertising-based video on demand platform Butaca TV. To date, My Code has helped brands invest more than $250 million in advertising spend to reach multicultural audiences.

This acquisition enables My Code to pursue future expansion through alignment with an investor that shares its mission. Ariel Alternatives is the private equity subsidiary of global asset manager Ariel Investments, LLC, the first African American-owned mutual fund company in the United States. This transaction is the third of Ariel Alternatives’ inaugural $1.45 billion fund, Project Black, which closed in February 2023.

In the long term, Project Black intends to transform portfolio companies like My Code into certified minority business enterprises (MBEs) and position them as leading suppliers to Fortune 500 companies, fueling greater business diversity across the United States and beyond. In the near term, My Code expects to leverage Project Black’s capital to invest in growth initiatives and benefit from Project Black’s CPO Council, a group of Fortune 500 Chief Procurement Officers that provides data on supplier demand across sectors. The Council’s insights, among others from Ariel’s vast procurement network, will aid the investment team, as it provides My Code with potential client introductions.  My Code will also welcome new directors to its board that bring critical and diverse expertise

Ariel Alternatives, LLC is a private asset management firm affiliated with Ariel Investments, LLC. It is an enterprise newly conceived for the times, built on a 40-year-old foundation. The firm’s inaugural fund, Project Black, aims to scale sustainable minority-owned businesses to serve as leading vendors to Fortune 500 companies – supporting supply chain diversity. The Fund invests in businesses that are not currently minority-owned, as well as existing minority-owned businesses, forging a new class of Black and brown entrepreneurs. Through its portfolio companies, Project Black plans to close the racial wealth gap by aiming to generate jobs and economic growth within underrepresented communities. These impact initiatives include, but are not limited to increasing the accessibility of products to underserved customers; the hiring of diverse people from the entry level to the boardroom; the purchasing of contracts with minority-owned vendors and suppliers; and philanthropic partnerships with organizations supporting civil rights.

Ariel Investments, LLC is a global value-oriented asset management firm founded in 1983. Ariel is headquartered in Chicago, with offices in New York City, San Francisco and Sydney. As of September 30, 2023, Ariel’s firm-wide assets under management totaled approximately $14.8 billion, which includes assets from Ariel Alternatives. Ariel serves individual and institutional investors through no-load mutual funds, collective investment trusts, private funds and separate account strategies.

Falfurrias Capital Partners is a Charlotte-based private equity investment firm founded in 2006 by Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America; Marc Oken, former CFO of Bank of America; and Managing Partner Ed McMahan. The firm has raised $2.2 billion across six funds and invests in growing, middle market businesses in sectors where the firm’s operational resources, relationships, and sector expertise can be employed to complement portfolio company executive teams in support of growth objectives. Falfurrias Capital Partners employs a proprietary, research-based process called “Industry First” to identify markets with durable growth trends, construct a thesis based on research findings, and partner with management teams and companies to create strategic value.