Raising US$85 million in a new funding round, French media company Animaj is looking to ramp up its AI-driven multi-platform strategy in the kids space. 

New Jersey-based investment firm HarbourView Equity Partners led this latest capital drive with France’s Bpifrance Large Venture, and JP Morgan, Bootstrap Europe, Left Lane Capital, XAnge, Daphni and Marquee Ventures were among the participants.

Animaj plans to use this financing to expand and modernize kids IPs into broader franchises—relying on its AI-supported animation pipeline and platform native storytelling in a digital-first ecosystem that spans YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, Spotify and FAST channels. 

The cash injection should also buoy Animaj’s ambitious plans to broker more acquisitions of major IPs on the same level as preschool brand Pocoyo (pictured), which it bought in 2023 from Spain’s Zinkia Entertainment. The company wants to fill out its brand portfolio to reach a wide demo ranging from preschoolers to tweens.

“There’s an extraordinary pool of kids IPs developed by independent studios and creators that hasn’t reached its full potential,” noted chief business officer Gregory Dray, who co-founded Animaj with CEO Sixte de Vauplane in 2022. “With a modern, platform-native approach, we want to amplify these brands globally without compromising their creative DNA.” 

The three-year-old company has already embarked on a strategic mission to integrate AI into its production process in a big way. One big bet is a proprietary GenAI animation pipeline that speeds up production time, keeps costs down, and uses an AI-based “sketch-to-pose” prediction and “motion-in-betweening” layer to help retain a toon’s artistic quality.

Animaj says it’s already at work developing the next iteration of its AI model to “enable more interactive and personalized content”.