HarbourView leads $85m funding in AI-powered youngsters leisure firm Animaj

HarbourView Fairness Companions is main an $85 million funding in Animaj, a youngsters and household content-focused leisure firm.

Animaj makes use of proprietary GenAI manufacturing instruments and what it calls a “multi-platform franchise-building mannequin”.

The Paris-headquartered firm says that it “acquires and scales high-potential IPs through the use of data-driven insights, automating animation pipelines by means of AI,” after which distributing that content material to platforms like YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify.

Animaj stories to have a month-to-month international viewers of 242 million distinctive viewers on YouTube, and claims to draw the “fifth-largest digital youngsters’ viewers globally”.

HarbourView has invested within the firm alongside French nationwide funding fund Bpifrance.

The spherical was additionally joined by Bpifrance, Left Lane Capital, Daphni, XANGE, and Marquee.

New debt financing was offered by J.P. Morgan and Bootstrap Europe, bringing the overall capital infusion to $85 million.

In keeping with a press launch, the brand new funding can be used to scale Animaj’s “AI-powered flywheel mannequin” – which it describes as a “digital-first, multi-platform ecosystem spanning YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify, and FAST channels.”

The brand new capital will even “speed up strategic IP acquisitions,” following Animaj’s buy of the Pocoyo youngsters leisure model in 2023.

“With confirmed monetization, an skilled crew, and a powerful pipeline of strategic IP alternatives, they’re poised to turn out to be a category-defining chief.”

Sherrese Clarke, HarbourView

“Animaj is reimagining youngsters’s leisure for the digital age,” mentioned Sherrese Clarke, Founder and CEO of HarbourView Fairness Companions.

“With confirmed monetization, an skilled crew, and a powerful pipeline of strategic IP alternatives, they’re poised to turn out to be a category-defining chief. We’re thrilled to accomplice with the Animaj crew as they scale globally.”

“Animaj is a brand new type of media firm: data-driven, AI-powered, digital-first however multiplatform by design.”

Sixte de Vauplane, Animaj

Sixte de Vauplane, Animaj Co-Founder & CEO, added: “We’re constructing one thing that’s by no means existed earlier than. Animaj is a brand new type of media firm: data-driven, AI-powered, digital-first however multiplatform by design.

“We don’t begin with a TV present and hope youngsters will come. We begin with the place they already are – YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify – and we construct from there.”

“We’re delighted to announce Bpifrance’s strategic funding in Animaj, a pioneering participant in the usage of AI for audiovisual manufacturing.”

José Gonzalo, Bpifrance

José Gonzalo, Govt Director, Bpifrance Direct Funding, mentioned: “We’re delighted to announce Bpifrance’s strategic funding in Animaj, a pioneering participant in the usage of AI for audiovisual manufacturing.

“Its co-founders, Sixte de Vauplane and Grégory Dray, convey an revolutionary method that locations AI on the core of their worth proposition, with a powerful concentrate on editorial high quality and the purpose of making high-quality, academic youngsters & household’s content material.

“We firmly consider of their imaginative and prescient and stay up for supporting the corporate’s progress and future success.”

The funding provides to HarbourView’s rising portfolio of media and IP property, which spans movie, tv, music, and content material corporations resembling Mucho Mas Media and MACRO.

Established in 2021 by former Tempo Music CEO Sherrese Clarke with backing from Apollo International Administration, HarbourView Fairness Companions has acquired over 70 music catalogs encompassing over 35,000 songs throughout each grasp recordings and publishing earnings streams.

Earlier this month the corporate secured $500 million in further debt financing from funding large KKR, secured through a non-public securitization backed by its music portfolio.

This newest transaction follows a earlier $500 million in debt financing secured by HarbourView in March 2024, by means of a non-public securitization backed by its catalog of music royalties, and led by KKR.

The corporate’s portfolio consists of music from T-Ache, James Fauntleroy, George Benson, Noel Zancanella, Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo, Nelly, Jeremih, Wiz Khalifa, Kane Brown, Full Drive and extra.

HarbourView stories to have amassed roughly $2.67 billion in regulatory property below administration.Music Enterprise Worldwide