Top 10 Startup Marketing Agencies Compared (2026)

You've closed a round, and the board now wants pipeline. The product moves fast, the team is small, and nobody owns marketing full time. That's usually when founders start looking at startup marketing agencies. This guide compares ten of them: who each one suits, what it runs, where it's based and what it publishes about price. Full disclosure: we're one of the ten, and we put ourselves first. Here's the case, so you can judge.

It depends on the job. For a full growth team, NoGood. For a fixed-price marketing foundation, RGray. For marketing leadership in B2B SaaS, Kalungi. For paid growth after product-market fit, Demand Curve, Hey Digital, Powered by Search or Growthcurve. For SEO and AI search, SimpleTiger. For UK B2B SaaS, Gripped. For the story behind all of it, Waveup.

How do startup marketing agencies compare?

They fall into three groups. NoGood, RGray and Kalungi take on most of the marketing job. Demand Curve and Gripped build demand engines for funded startups. Hey Digital, Powered by Search, SimpleTiger and Growthcurve go deep on one or two channels. Waveup sits apart: it fixes the positioning, brand and sales story before the spend.

Which are the best startup marketing agencies in 2026?

We started with the agencies that rank for startup and growth marketing searches, and the ones other lists name. Then we checked each one on its own website in November 2026. We dropped agencies that had closed, merged or stopped serving startups. A price appears only where an agency publishes it. Across 1,200+ projects since 2014, we've found that fit matters more than fame.

1. Waveup: the story, brand and sales materials behind the spend

Full disclosure: this is our list. Waveup is a London-based fundraising and growth advisory, with 1,200+ projects since 2014. We build the decks, models, CIMs and valuations that hold up under investor scrutiny. Once the round closes, we stay on for the brand, website and sales materials that help you grow into the valuation.

We're not a channel agency. We fix the story first: the positioning, the startup branding, the website and the sales deck. Then we write a go-to-market plan with 90-day milestones. For a pre-launch legal AI company, we rebuilt the story, the brand and the sales deck. It signed £200K ARR within a week of the sales deck going out. Our work is quoted per project.

If you need a team to run paid ads and SEO every day, pick one of the agencies below. Many founders use both: us for the story, a channel team for the reach.

Best for — funded startups that need the positioning, brand and sales story right before they spend on channels.

2. RGray: a fixed-price marketing foundation for tech startups

RGray is a growth marketing agency in Kyiv, founded in 2019. It works with crypto, AI, SaaS and fintech companies. Its design branch, at design.rgray.io, makes brand identities and websites for startups. On Clutch, it has 4.9 out of 5 from 23 reviews.

Its startup offer is rare: fixed packages that build your marketing foundation in 28 days. They run from $4,499 for Starter to $17,499 for Professional. The ad budget comes on top. Its case studies include growth work for crypto apps such as GoodCrypto and ShapeShift.

Best for — early-stage tech, AI and crypto startups that want the marketing basics built fast, at a fixed price.

3. NoGood: a senior growth team for Series A and later

NoGood calls itself an AI-native growth marketing agency. It's headquartered in New York, with hubs in Miami and Dubai, and its site counts 70+ experts. It works with startups, scale-ups and Fortune 100 brands.

It's one of the few that talk money up front. Its FAQ says every engagement is a monthly retainer, and the average is above $20,000 a month. For Spring Health, it says it raised provider-qualified leads by 113%.

Best for — Series A and later companies that want a full growth team and have the budget for it.

4. Kalungi: a fractional CMO for B2B SaaS

Kalungi is a B2B SaaS marketing agency in Kirkland, near Seattle. An associate CMO owns your priorities, and Kalungi's team does the work. That suits companies with revenue but no head of marketing. Its homepage says 280+ SaaS companies have worked with it.

It sells three ways to work. In Full Service, it runs marketing for you. Syntropy adds senior leadership to your own team, for companies with $1M to $5M in ARR. T2D3 sells its playbooks to teams before product-market fit. Prices aren't published. For DataGuard, it reports 330% growth in marketing-qualified leads in under six months.

Best for — B2B SaaS companies without a head of marketing, from the first playbook to a full team.

5. Demand Curve: a growth agency that only works with startups

Demand Curve works only with startups and says it's backed by Y Combinator. Its sweet spot is Series A to Series C, or a bootstrapped company with at least seven figures in revenue. Its site says it has worked with 7,000+ startups.

It works month to month, with no long contract, and doesn't publish prices. Its homepage says it grew WorkOS's qualified lead flow from Google ninefold. It doesn't list an address on its own site.

Best for — Series A to C startups scaling paid acquisition with a team that only works with startups.

6. Gripped: B2B SaaS demand generation in the UK, with prices up front

Gripped is a London agency for SaaS, AI and tech companies, working since 2017. It says it has worked with over 160 of them, from seed to Series B. It turns paid and organic channels into pipeline, including account-based marketing.

Its homepage publishes what most agencies hide. Typical fees run £5,000 to £15,000 a month. Most clients spend £8,000 to £12,000. Contracts roll, with three months' notice. Its case studies include £1.3M of pipeline for Crownpeak in one quarter.

Best for — UK and European B2B SaaS companies with £2M to £20M in ARR.

7. Hey Digital: paid ads for B2B SaaS, and nothing else

Hey Digital opened its first office in Tallinn, Estonia. It now runs a fully remote team of 45+ people in 22+ countries. It works only with B2B SaaS companies, and only on paid ads.

It doesn't publish prices. For PostHog, it reports an 18.5% increase in cloud conversions. The narrow focus is the point: you get specialists in one channel, not a generalist team.

Best for — B2B SaaS companies past product-market fit that want paid ads to drive pipeline.

8. Powered by Search: a startup program from $5,000

Powered by Search is a Toronto agency, working since 2009, that calls itself a B2B paid ads and GEO agency. GEO means getting your brand into AI answers, not only Google's links. Its startup program serves bootstrapped, seed and Series A SaaS companies, and can act as your whole marketing team.

It says plainly who it's not for: teams before revenue or product-market fit. There are no long-term contracts, and pricing starts at $5,000, though the page doesn't say per month or per project. For TouchBistro, it reports 324% more demos in six months.

Best for — B2B SaaS startups with revenue and product-market fit that want one team to run marketing.

9. SimpleTiger: SEO and AI search for SaaS

SimpleTiger is a search agency in Sarasota, Florida. It works with B2B SaaS and AI companies, from seed stage to enterprise. It now sells AI search work alongside classic SEO.

Its pricing page lists packages but no prices, so you book a demo. For Invoca, it reports a 41:1 return on investment over the first ten months. On Clutch, it has 4.9 out of 5 from 34 reviews.

Best for — SaaS companies where search, in Google or in AI answers, is the main growth channel.

10. Growthcurve: creative-led paid growth for big media budgets

Growthcurve is a growth marketing agency in East London, with an office in New York. It puts strategy, media and creative under one roof, with its own network of content creators and influencers. Its clients are in the US, the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

It sets a high bar: its enquiry form asks for a media budget of at least $50,000 a month. That's ad spend, not its fee, which isn't published. For the fintech Hubpay, it says it won 30,000 users in the first six months.

Best for — well-funded startups ready to spend heavily on ads and creative every month.

Also worth a look: Single Grain, Kurve and Animalz

Single Grain runs SEO, paid media and AI search for growth-stage companies. Clutch places it in Los Angeles and lists its minimum project at $10,000.

Kurve is a London agency for app marketing. Pick it when your product lives in the app stores.

Animalz writes content strategy and articles for B2B SaaS companies. Pick it when content is your main channel and you need a writing team, not ads.

Need a strategy before a channel team? Our guide to go-to-market consulting firms compares ten of them. Raising first? See our list of pitch deck design agencies.

What does a growth marketing agency do?

A growth marketing agency runs tests across the funnel, from the first ad to the renewal, and keeps what moves revenue. A startup marketing agency can be broader: some also set positioning, build the brand and launch the website. Most agencies on this list do some of both, and each one leans one way.

At pre-seed and seed, the job is to find one message and one channel that work. That means positioning, a website that converts and small tests. A big retainer rarely pays off here. There isn't enough data yet to tell what's working.

At Series A, the job changes. Investors now expect a repeatable engine, so content, search and paid ads have to work together. Tracking matters as much as creative. You need to see which channel brings pipeline, not just clicks. Our go-to-market strategy guide shows how to plan it.

From Series B, you add channels and markets, and brand starts to matter again. Many companies then hire a head of marketing and keep agencies for specialist work. Whether you sell product-led or sales-led changes which channels lead.

How much does a startup marketing agency cost?

In 2026, published fees on this list run from a $4,499 one-off package to retainers that average over $20,000 a month. Most agencies quote after a call, and ad spend comes on top. Scope moves the price most: the number of channels, who writes the content, the ad budget they manage and the team's seniority.

For context, the US companies in The CMO Survey 2026 put 9.0% of revenue into marketing. Smaller companies spend a bigger share. In a SparkToro survey of agencies, 86% said their average monthly retainer is up to $10,000.

Say you've raised a seed round and can spend $20,000 a month on marketing. At NoGood's average retainer, the fee alone would take all of it, with nothing left for ads. At Gripped, most clients spend £8,000 to £12,000 a month, which leaves room for media. RGray's Starter package is a one-off $4,499, and then the ad budget is yours to set. Agree what the fee covers before you compare totals.

Now compare that with a hire. A US marketing manager earns a median of $166,790 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That buys one senior person, not a strategist, a writer, a designer and an ads specialist. Our marketing budget guide shows how to size the line in your model.

How do you choose a startup marketing agency?

Start with the job: the story, a demand engine or one channel. Then check work for startups at your stage, who'll work on your account each week and what they'll measure. Get the contract terms and the exit in writing. A good agency asks hard questions about your numbers before it quotes.

Stage matters as much as skill. Here's how the agencies on this list line up, based on what each one says about itself.

Here's what fixing the story first looks like. A pre-launch legal AI company came to us with material that read like a legal opinion. We rebuilt the narrative and the financial model, then the brand, the website and a sales deck. Within a week of the sales deck going out, the company signed £200K ARR. It now has 14 major UK companies in its pipeline. Read the case.