AKQA profile for 2026: history since 1994, WPP ownership, the AKQA Group merger with Grey, notable clients, and how its custom, project-based pricing works.
AKQA is a global digital design and advertising agency founded in London in 1994 by Ajaz Ahmed, who named the company after his own initials at age 21. It expanded internationally in 2001 through a merger with agencies in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Singapore, growing into a multinational network serving major global brands.
AKQA is not a self-serve software product. It is a service business that WPP, one of the world's largest marketing holding companies, acquired a majority stake in during 2012, and later merged with Grey Group in November 2020 to form AKQA Group, an umbrella organization employing roughly 6,000 people worldwide.
AKQA's service lines span digital product design and development, ecommerce experience design and build, CRM and customer experience consulting, brand strategy and communications campaigns, and broader technology and platform engineering work for enterprise clients.
The agency also runs innovation and emerging-technology labs exploring areas like AI and immersive experiences, and it works with a client roster that reportedly includes more than half of the Fortune 500's top 20 companies, alongside brands such as Nike, BBC Earth, and H&M.
AKQA does not publish pricing plans or tiers because it operates as a project-based and retainer-based agency rather than a productized software tool. Each engagement is scoped and priced individually based on the client's brief, required team size, and project duration.
Prospective clients typically contact AKQA directly to discuss a project or retainer and receive a custom proposal, a structure common among large creative and consulting agencies but very different from the self-serve pricing found on most SaaS tools in this directory.
No, it is a digital design and advertising agency offering project-based services, not a SaaS tool.
Ajaz Ahmed founded AKQA in London in 1994, at age 21.
No, WPP acquired a majority stake in 2012, and AKQA now operates within WPP's AKQA Group.
Digital product design, ecommerce development, CRM consulting, brand strategy and communications, and technology and innovation consulting.
Pricing is custom and project-based, negotiated per client engagement, with no published rate card.
The combined organization formed in November 2020 when WPP merged AKQA with Grey Group, keeping both as distinct client-facing brands.
Yes, Ajaz Ahmed stepped down as CEO of AKQA Group in October 2024 after 30 years leading the agency.