Following last month’s acquisition of data company Epsilon for a reported $3.9 billion, Publicis Groupe has confirmed its next purchase of full-service independent marketing agency Rauxa. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

With this development, Rauxa will become part of Publicis Media US. The company will continue to be led by founder Jill Gwaltney and president, CEO Gina Smith, who will report to Publicis Media Exchange (PMX) global CEO David Penski and Tim Jones, CEO of the Americas for Publicis Media.

“With the acquisition of Rauxa, Publicis Groupe is further delivering on the promise of driving one-to-one consumer engagement at scale for clients. The addition of Rauxa’s strategy, data, tech, media, creative and production expertise further enhances our data-driven creativity offerings and scaled capabilities across investment, strategy, insights and analytics, data and technology, commerce, performance marketing and content,” said Arthur Sadoun Publicis Groupe CEO in a statement.

Now the largest independent women’s agency, Rauxa was founded in 1999 as a team of four and has since grown to a team of over 320 with offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Orange County and Dallas. Its client roster includes Verizon, Samsung, Alaska Airlines, Vans, Celgene and over 20 other brands. 

Now part of the Publicis family, Penski told AdWeek that Rauxa would boost the agency’s CRM and personalised creative offerings; areas where he said Rauxa performed “as well as anyone.” He also cited Rauxa’s dedication to client service and client engagement, new business acumen and managerial style, and added the company provided differently, but complementary, offerings to existing Publicis Media’s entities while also boosting it geographically in locations where its presence hasn’t been as strong.

The acquisition of Rauxa has been on the agency’s radar for some time with Penski concluding that the independent agency stood out as a potential merger over the past year, with initial talks discussed at the end of 2018.