Grapple and HERO founder becomes THG Ingenuity chairman

THG’s commerce arm Ingenuity has appointed technology and payments entrepreneur Alistair Crane as its chairman. He joins to “support plans to accelerate growth in core markets including the US”, the digital retail group said. 

Crane, who is also chief executive of digital career coaching business Bloom, has extensive experience working with brands and “a proven track record in founding, scaling and exiting e-commerce businesses in the UK and US” over a 20-year career. 

Before Bloom, he founded Grapple, a developer of mobile apps for brands acquired by Monitise, and HERO, the social shopping platform bought by Klarna in 2021. 

THG said: “Alistair’s appointment supports the next stage in Ingenuity’s development following its pivot towards more complex, higher-margin Enterprise clients, which gathered pace in 2023. 

“As chairman, Alistair will support Ingenuity’s senior leadership team, using his experience and contacts to help scale the Ingenuity business in the US.

Ingenuity said it will also seek “further major Enterprise partners” in core categories including nutrition, wellness, prestige beauty, retail and food and beverage with its complete commerce solution under its growth plans. Its current partnerships include L’Oréal, Matalan and Asda. 

Matt Moulding, chief executive of THG, added that Crane “has spent his career building digital brands and scaling high-growth businesses, so he is the perfect candidate to help Ingenuity expand across core markets”.