After spending the past year quietly building an international portfolio of projects, former AKQA Global Chief Creative Officers Hugo Veiga and Diego Machado have officially launched !F Creative Capital , a new company that aims to challenge how creativity is valued and rewarded.
Already operating across markets including the US, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Brazil, Portugal and Switzerland, !F arrives with work connected to some of the world’s most recognisable sporting figures, alongside investments in emerging businesses and original entertainment.
The company has developed Victory State of Mind, a belief system created for Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr ; helped establish the Globe Sports Award, a new international award created by Ronaldo , including a cinematic tribute to its inaugural winner, Novak Djokovic; and developed the personal brand identity and positioning of legendary football manager Carlo Ancelotti .
Hugo Veiga and Diego Machado have spent nearly two decades in the industry, which includes 12-year creative relationships with Nike and Netflix, including its first global brand campaign, Dove, Coca-Cola, and six Cannes Lions Grand Prix.
After six years as Global Chief Creative Officers of AKQA, they have spent the past year quietly building a new model for creatives. Their new company, !F Creative Capital, aims to reflect everything they have learned over the past two decades in the industry.
“Our goal isn’t to build the biggest creative company in the world,” said Hugo Veiga, Co-Founder of !F Creative Capital. “It’s to build a company where creativity can generate value beyond the services it provides. We want more creatives to become owners of the businesses they help create.”
!F Creative Capital invests experience, talent, judgment, and relationships (instead of money), in exchange for equity. In an era when the brand can make a product, !F is aims to conceive, build and launch its own products and brands.
The model goes beyond exchanging agency fees for equity. !F aims to become involved earlier in the development of businesses, helping shape products, brands and even business models.
In other cases, it creates and invests in its own ventures and entertainment productions. The company has four main components:
Ventures : equity partnerships with consumer brands and !F-owned brands. Equity examples: Carlo Ancelotti (the most decorated manager in the history of the Champions League), Authentic Fruits (global consumer food brand), and CheckMy.Music, (an AI platform that checks songs for plagiarism). Owned brands include SN!FF, a pet company whose first product lets dogs smell food before their owners buy it, and Baitts, reinventing the everyday toothpick.
Commissions : small senior teams, no timesheets. Current work includes Corona, Portugal’s MEO, projects for Cristiano Ronaldo’s Globe Soccer Awards, Al-Nassr.
Entertainment : co-producing a feature film across China and the US for 2027, plus original documentaries.
School of Creative Entrepreneurship : coming in 2027, waitlist live at launch. Eight-week sprints helping people turn ideas into real businesses, supported by !F’s global network of creatives, entrepreneurs and industry leaders.