Ada Animation, an entertainment tech startup in the Ada Labs Africa network of enterprises, has received pre-seed funding from Platform Capital, a Nigerian venture capital firm, through its technology vehicle, Unicorn Group.
This is the first investment of its sort in East Africa, and it is expected to elevate entertainment companies in Africa as potential VC partners. The amount of money was not immediately revealed.

“We are incredibly proud of our partnership with Unicorn Group, a Platform Capital company. This strategic investment represents an important step in our growth as a company, we will immediately ramp up our efforts to attract top talent in animation production to join our journey. Ada Animation is at the forefront of animation industry on the continent, changing the way we represent our content to produce more than we consume and share our stories from our perspectives. We see huge potential for Ada Animation content on millions of screens worldwide. The world will watch movies made from our imagination and will visualize color and creativity born from our culture,” Joy Mwangi, CEO of Ada Animation said. 

“We look forward to showcasing to the international community that there is a massive animation market opportunity in Africa for investment and scale through our work, talent and programs. The timing is so critical for us as we have started producing our first animation movie set for a global release next year,” concluded Mwangi.

The obtained funding will be used to support Ada Animation’s expansion aspirations, including hiring top people, producing African content, and further developing its proprietary technology. Dean Lyon, Director at Splinter Studios; Jack Giarraputo, Co-Founder at Happy Madison Productions; Firdaus Kharas, CEO at Chocolate Moose; Joann Yarrow, Executive Director at LIVE Animation Studios make up Ada Animation’s powerful advisory group. Dr. Akintoye Akindele, Chairman of Platform Capital, will join the board as part of Platform’s investment.

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The financing comes on the heels of the company’s recent collaboration with the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) to launch an animation summit and the second season of Ada Animation Boot Camp, which will be the country’s largest statewide training program in the field.

Why The Investors Invested

“We are excited about our partnership with Ada Animation. We have seen how passionate and committed they have been since inception to add value into the animation creatives sector in Africa. We see this as an opportunity to build a dynamic animation industry for the youth. It is about time we fabricated and developed a platform that encourages and supports young creatives on the continent to be at the epicenter of telling African stories. We are optimistic about the development of creative talent and growth of homegrown platforms that will spur international companies’ partnerships in boosting the animation industry,” Akintoye Akindele, Chairman of the Unicorn Group, said. 

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A Look At What The Startup Does

Ada Animation was founded in 2020 with the goal of building capacity in the animation business, telling animated African tales, and catalyzing the animation sector’s growth.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer