Caspar Lee, Joe Sugg Part With Management Firm Gleam To Launch New Venture (Exclusive)

Two of the U.K.’s biggest YouTube stars, Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg, have ceased ties with noted digital talent management firm Gleam Futures, the former roommates and frequent collaborators tell Tubefilter. In coming weeks, Lee and Sugg will announce a new business venture — though they declined to provide any details.

“We’ve enjoyed our three years working with Gleam and we’re very thankful for their support and we wish them all the best,” the duo said in a statement provided exclusively to Tubefilter. They noted that their contracts at the London-based company have expired and they are opting not to renew. “With the creator platform constantly evolving, we have decided to fully immerse ourselves in a new business venture, which will be announced in the coming weeks. We’re excited to share the next chapter in our careers.”

Gleam Futures has served as a seminal force on the UK digital media scene, helping to shepherd the careers of some of the nation’s biggest stars, including Zoe “Zoella” Sugg (who is Joe’s sister), Alfie Deyes, Louise Pentland, and Marcus Butler. A slew of Gleam creators, including the above stars, launched a live event venture called HelloWorld

Together, Lee and Sugg count a combined 23 million subscribers and 2.8 billion lifetime views. In 2015, they launched a production company called Raucous Productions alongside Gleam CEO Dom Smales, which saw the release of two comedy documentaries: Joe And Caspar Hit the Road and Joe And Caspar Hit the Road USA.

More recently, Lee, 23, tendered an investment in a marketing startup called Influencer, where he currently serves as chief innovation officer. Sugg, 26, entered the publishing world in 2015 with a massively successful graphic novel trilogy titled Username. The final book in the series, subtitled Uprising, bowed last month.

Gleam’s prominence within the UK digital media space and command of an arguable majority of its leading talent has not gone unnoticed by power players in media around the globe. In June, Dentsu Aegis Network (the London-based subsidiary of the Japanese multinational media conglomerate Dentsu) acquired a majority stake in the company for an undisclosed amount.