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Acamar gets $3.9m Bing-jection

Bing is adapted from Ted Dewan’s books

UK indie animation studio Acamar Films has raised £3m (US$3.9m) of private investment in just over a month to grow its prized children’s property Bing.

Using a UK government-endorsed Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) – which offers tax relief to individual investors who buy new shares in a company – Acamar was able to raise the amount in 34 days from investors of the Wealth Club, the largest broker of tax-efficient investments.

The new capital will be used, alongside further debt, to boost hit BBC preschool show Bing as a global entertainment property and to produce additional Bing content. It will also be used to develop a strengthened consumer products division and international sales arm.

Bing, adapted from the books by US author and illustrator Ted Dewan, celebrates the realities and adventures experienced by preschool children via a bunny named Bing.

It is currently the second most downloaded programme on BBC VoD platform iPlayer across the entirety of the BBC’s output, and has been sold around the globe. Acamar is planning to launch Bing in North America by the end of the year.

“We have all been impressed by the entire team at Wealth Club,” said Mikael Shields, CEO, producer, writer and voice director at Acamar Films. “They’ve worked hard from the outset to understand the special appeal of our project to both young children and the grown-ups in their lives.”

Alex Davies, CEO and founder of Wealth Club, added: “Bing is hugely popular. I know this first hand. My five-year-old daughter is an obsessive fan, as are my colleagues’ young children. For private investors, this was a rare opportunity. Normally, something as already successful as this would have been snapped up by a large media company and private investors wouldn’t have got a look in.”

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