Kunda Youngsters raises $700k to launch its music-led youngsters’s animation

Kunda Youngsters, the youngsters’s media writer and inventive studio not too long ago closed its $700k pre-seed funding spherical and has launched the Kunda & Buddies YouTube sequence, the corporate’s flagship animation sequence, premiering on Might twenty ninth at The Cineworld Cinema at The O2 in Greenwich,

The spherical was led by Zrosk Funding Administration with participation from Voltron Capital, Argentil Capital, HoaQ, Kaleo Ventures, along with angel traders Abi Ajayi, Chiamaka Ezenwa, Adetayo Bamiduro of MAX, and Benjamin Fernandes, CEO of Nala Cash.

In keeping with Oladele Olafuyi, Creator, Kunda & Buddies, “I’m thrilled to announce the profitable closing of our pre-seed spherical, and I couldn’t be extra grateful for the inspiring traders who share our imaginative and prescient. This milestone permits us to launch Kunda & Buddies and put money into the distinctive inventive expertise throughout Africa. We’re dedicated to bringing forth a brand new technology of African storytellers, and collectively, we’ll change the narrative.”

The funds will likely be utilized to additional construct out the Kunda Youngsters cell app and proceed working with inventive expertise from throughout the African diaspora.

Based in 2020 by husband and spouse Oladele & Louisa Olafuyi to convey extra African tradition, historical past and language studying to youngsters’s publishing and train values akin to self-confidence, teamwork and kindness by way of storytelling, Kunda Youngsters has bought over 25,000 books to this point, and the Kunda Youngsters app has been downloaded in over 130 nations.

Black and multi-racial characters are among the many least generally proven teams in youngsters’s media (1.9% and 0.6% respectively), in line with a 2022 research by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Kunda Youngsters exists to rework youngsters’s content material and programming about Africa for the following technology. By showcasing varied parts of African historical past and tradition in inventive, enjoyable and easy codecs for teenagers, mother and father and educators can elevate youngsters to be world residents with an understanding and appreciation for different cultures from around the globe.

Kunda & Buddies is a music-led 3D animation for youngsters set in an African panorama. Kunda, a four-year-old boy of blended African heritage, takes viewers on his adventures exploring the world round him together with his associates Sana, a woman of blended African and Indian heritage, Fela, a boy from Nigeria, in addition to Leo the lion and Ella the elephant. The Kunda & Buddies soundtrack music takes inspiration from African tradition, with influences from genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano made fashionable by Grammy award-winning artists akin to Ladysmith Black Mambazo and extra not too long ago, singers like Burna Boy and WizKid.

The sequence’ storyline is anchored on friendship and imparts prosocial life classes, offering mother and father and educators with a possibility to show and play with their youngsters as they watch collectively.

“Our kids should study extra about Africa’s wealthy and numerous heritage, and it’s our ambition to offer high quality tales in varied codecs to youngsters around the globe. It’s important for youngsters to see themselves and others represented in world-class tales and content material. By nurturing a way of delight and belonging, we empower them to develop up as assured, culturally-aware people who will form the longer term.” Louisa Olafuyi, Creator, Kunda & Buddies.

A core pillar of Kunda Youngsters’ mission is to create extra alternatives for African expertise in publishing and manufacturing. The corporate is dedicated to working with animators, artists, writers, producers and enterprise leaders from numerous backgrounds. Raymond Malinga, Director of Kunda & Buddies, co-founder of Creatures Animation Studio and former Disney Producer, shared, “Kunda & Buddies is a chance to influence not solely the youthful technology of youngsters from everywhere in the world however to influence the lives of artists longing to work on bigger scale productions.”

The primary 4 episodes of Kunda & Buddies will likely be obtainable on Monday, Might twenty ninth, with subsequent episodes to be launched within the weeks following.

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