Animation studio Animaj gets $85m investment to support AI activities

Preschool animation Pocoyo is Animaj’s flagship IP

New York-based investment firm HarbourView Equity Partners and French national investment fund Bpifrance have led a US$85m investment in Paris- and London-based animation studio Animaj.

Also contributing to the investment are Left Lane Capital, Daphni, XANGE and Marquee, with new debt financing provided by JP Morgan and Bootstrap Europe.

Animaj, whose flagship IP is preschool brand Pocoyo, which it acquired from Spain’s Zinkia Entertainment in 2023, is using an AI-driven, digital-first approach to children’s content and has been launching its own AI tools that aim to speed up animation production.

The US$85m investment will be used to scale Animaj’s AI-powered “flywheel” model – a digital-first, multi-platform ecosystem spanning distribution on YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify and free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels.

The company is seeking to modernise other underused IPs through AI-driven production digital-first distribution.

The funding will also be used to accelerate these strategic IP acquisitions, as Animaj looks to build a kids’ content portfolio spanning preschool to tweens and digital-native to cross-generational franchises.

“Animaj is reimagining children’s entertainment for the digital age. With proven monetisation, an experienced team and a strong pipeline of strategic IP opportunities, they are poised to become a category-defining leader,” said Sherrese Clarke, founder and CEO of HarbourView Equity Partners.

Sixte de Vauplane, Animaj’s co-founder and CEO, said: “We’re building something that’s never existed before. Animaj is a new kind of media company: data-driven, AI-powered, digital-first but multiplatform by design. We don’t start with a TV show and hope kids will come; we start with where they already are – YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify – and we build from there.”