Keyframe Studios seeks investors

Nursery rhyme-based show The Adventures of Zeze Zebra

UK animation studio Keyframe Studios aims to take part in an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) that offers tax relief to individual investors who buy new shares in the company.

Keyframe has said “high-level discussions” with potential investment partners are already under way and it hopes to announce the first investors in the animation studio early next year.

The EIS has recently been used by Keyframe’s fellow UK animation company Acamar Films to raise private investment for its children’s property Bing. The total raised is close to £10m (US$13.3m) following its latest round.

The move comes as London-based Keyframe continues to develop its own IP while providing service work, with clients including Channel 4, BBC, Sky and BBC Studios.

Keyframe is behind the game content in E4 adult comedy series Dead Pixels, about three people who are obsessed with an online fantasy game. The show’s second season was delivered in April and is set to air next year.

The company also created its own two-minute nursery rhyme-based animated show The Adventures of Zeze Zebra, and is currently working on an expanded version of the series, which is available on numerous AVoD platforms. The first run of 13×5′ episodes will be delivered by next spring, the company said.

Keyframe is also developing a treatment for a television format based on fantasy-adventure IP The Watchers, which was devised by the studio founder and animation directo, Asa Movshovitz.

Movshovitz said: “A talented workforce, diverse skillsets and a varied portfolio have enabled us to continue developing ideas and content at a tough time for the media sector. As global prospects improve, we’re looking forward to building an even stronger and more diverse portfolio in the coming year.”