The comedy company that became infrastructure - turning local humor into Southeast Asia's largest creator network.
In 2012, two students at Singapore Management University started posting jokes for their friends under the name SGAG. Thirteen years later, the company they built around it - Hepmil - was acquired by Publicis Groupe, the world's third-largest advertising group. The path between those two points is the story of how attention, once earned, becomes a business.
Figures per Hepmil and Publicis Groupe, October 2025.
Hepmil is an influencer, content and social media agency. It helps brands understand the potential of creators, then connects them with the right ones across six Southeast Asian markets. What sets it apart from a typical agency is that Hepmil owns the platforms too. SGAG in Singapore, MGAG in Malaysia and PGAG in the Philippines are comedy and pop-culture channels that collectively reach more than 70 million people - so Hepmil isn't only renting attention, it's built some of its own.
Around those platforms sits the Hepmil Creators' Network, launched in 2020 as a TikTok-first arm to champion independent Southeast Asian comedy creators. It gives them business opportunities, brand deals and management - turning a loose community of funny people into a network brands can actually book.
"Hepmil exists to accelerate the lives of millions in Southeast Asia through engaging and entertaining content."
- Hepmil mission statementA network of 3,000+ high-value creators. Brand partnerships, creator management and business opportunities for independent SEA talent.
Owned comedy and pop-culture media platforms reaching 70M+ people across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Full-service branded content - comedic video, social formats and campaigns tuned to local culture and language.
Brand placements across the group's owned and operated social channels.
Creator-led commerce and live-shopping integrations that link entertaining content to conversion.
YouTube optimization, digital rights management and creator development, built on the Bent Pixels partnership.
Hepmil's customers are the more than 450 brands - regional and global - that want to reach young Southeast Asians without sounding like an ad. Its "product," in a sense, is the audience its platforms and creators have already earned. It also works with the media-buying arms of the big holding companies.
Reach across the group (illustrative scale)
Bars are scaled for readability, not to exact proportion. Source: Hepmil / Publicis, 2025.
Most agencies rent audiences. Hepmil built SGAG, MGAG and PGAG - platforms with tens of millions already watching before a brand shows up.
Southeast Asia is six senses of humor, not one market. Hepmil produces content tuned to each country's culture and language rather than translating a single campaign.
The Creators' Network offers real business opportunities to independent creators, aiming to keep talent in the fold rather than churning through a rate card.
Co-founders Karl Mak (CEO) and Adrian Ang formalized Hepmil Media Group in 2015, building the company around the SGAG page they had started three years earlier. Their thesis - which they described as the "decentralization of media" - was that audiences would increasingly gather around creators and community rather than legacy outlets.
"This opportunity to work with the entire team in Publicis Groupe Southeast Asia and globally is going to unlock so much more value for our business, client partners, creator network and our employees."
- Karl Mak, Co-founder & CEO, Hepmil"Through the combination of Hepmil's reach, content expertise and social platforms with the power of Publicis' identity graph, we're building South East Asia's first end-to-end influencer solution."
- Arthur Sadoun, Chairman & CEO, Publicis GroupeHepmil earns from brands through influencer campaigns, branded-content production, reserved media on its owned channels, and social commerce. It monetizes its own audiences directly and takes a share of creator brand deals routed through the network, while also selling YouTube and rights-management services via Bent Pixels Asia.
In the market, Hepmil sits between pure talent agencies and full holding-company networks - close enough to creators to be authentic, structured enough to serve global brands. That in-between position is exactly what made it an attractive acquisition. Competitors include regional players like Gushcloud and Netccentric (Nuffnang), global creator shops such as The Goat Agency, and the in-house creator arms of the big agency groups.
Revenue is an external estimate and approximate.
Two SMU students launch the SGAG meme page to make Singaporeans laugh.
Karl Mak and Adrian Ang formalize the group around SGAG and its sister platforms.
The company raises US$960K to expand regionally beyond Singapore.
A TikTok-first arm to champion independent Southeast Asian comedy creators.
Quest Ventures, Pavilion Capital and Bent Pixels back the "decentralization of media."
Hepmil grows into Thailand and Vietnam, reaching six SEA markets.
Publicis buys Hepmil to build Southeast Asia's first end-to-end influencer solution.
First external round to fund early regional expansion beyond Singapore.
Led by Quest Ventures, Pavilion Capital (Temasek-linked) and Bent Pixels - the company's first institutional investment.
The brand names follow the country code - SGAG for Singapore, MGAG for Malaysia, PGAG for the Philippines.
The founders call their strategy the "decentralization of media" - betting audiences gather around creators, not outlets.
One of the world's largest advertising groups bought a company that began as an internet joke.
Its creator network reaches over a billion people across six Southeast Asian markets.
Hepmil is an influencer, content and social media agency that connects brands with young Southeast Asian audiences through its creator network and owned comedy platforms like SGAG.
Karl Mak and Adrian Ang founded Hepmil Media Group in 2015, building on the SGAG meme page they started in 2012.
Yes. Publicis Groupe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Hepmil Media Group in October 2025.
The Hepmil Creators' Network spans over 3,000 creators reaching more than 1 billion people across six Southeast Asian markets.
Hepmil raised roughly US$11 million total, including a US$10 million Series A in 2021 led by Quest Ventures, Pavilion Capital and Bent Pixels.