Cape Town-based Ace Labs, co-founded by influencer Nadia Jaftha and her fiancé, Reece Meyer, attended TikTok’s exclusive Global Partner Summit in New York, putting the local creator intelligence agency in the spotlight alongside some of the world’s biggest digital commerce and marketing players.
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The business is already a TikTok Global Partner. The New York invitation signalled growing recognition for a company that has spent the past few years helping South African brands turn online attention into measurable business results.
A local business on a global stage
Ace Labs stated the opportunity came after years of building what it describes as a creator-led conversion model that combines cultural relevance, data and platform-native storytelling.
Meyer shared, “This is a full-circle moment for Ace Labs. We built this agency brick by brick from Cape Town with the belief that South African thinking could compete anywhere in the world. He added that the invitation was not only recognition for the agency but also the model it had developed.
“Being invited into a room with TikTok and global industry leaders is not just validation for us, but validation for the conversion model we have built, one that proves that creativity, culture and data can move together.”
The company has worked with brands including Capitec, PayJustNow and HUAWEI.
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Why the timing matters
The invitation arrived as the global creator economy continues to evolve from influencer marketing into a broader digital commerce ecosystem.
Earlier this year, TikTok partnered with the International Chamber of Commerce to launch Digital Commerce Labs, an initiative aimed at helping entrepreneurs and small businesses generate revenue through digital commerce, training and mentorship.
While many markets are still formalising creator-led commerce as an economic sector, Ace Labs says it has been developing these strategies for South African brands for nearly four years.
More than an agency-client relationship
Ace Labs credits part of its growth to long-term support from Capitec, which has partnered with the agency on creator-led campaigns and strategic innovation projects over the past 18 months.
That relationship has helped the agency experiment with new approaches to creator marketing and digital commerce.
Building opportunities for local creators
Jaftha revealed that the agency was founded after recognising a gap between brands seeking cultural relevance and creators with influence but lacked the infrastructure to turn that influence into sustainable businesses.
“When we founded Ace Labs, it was through the fact that we felt, lived and survived this disconnect. Brands were hungry for cultural relevance in our nuanced country, but struggled to navigate creator culture with authenticity.
“What we’ve built is an ecosystem, a creative hub where South African talent can access global opportunity without sacrificing their home-grown voice.”
The company has also launched initiatives such as the Creator Club, aimed at helping professionalise the digital creator industry and make the creator economy a more sustainable career path.
“For too long, there was a narrative that you had to sanitise your identity or mimic international archetypes to succeed on a global stage. But the global market responds to authenticity.”
What it means for South Africa
South Africa’s digital creative economy is estimated to be worth around R6.9 billion, and the New York invitation highlighted how local creative businesses are increasingly being viewed as exportable intellectual property.
For Ace Labs, the trip is less about attending an international event and more about demonstrating that South African creator-led innovation can stand alongside global industry leaders.
As platforms such as TikTok continue shaping the future of digital commerce, the company believes Cape Town-developed strategies have the potential to influence how brands and creators work together well beyond South Africa’s borders.
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