African edutainment company raises $6 million
Nairobi and London-based, edutainment company, Kukua has raised $6 million in the company’s latest round of investment.
The round was co-led by Italy-based VC Alchimia and Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate, Tencent with companies such as EchoVC, firstminute Capital and Auxxo Female Catalyst also investing.
Founded back in 2018, Kukua is known for creating Africa’s first animated superhero franchise “Super Sema,” and the company revealed that the investment will go into supporting the company’s goal of building an IP-centric kids’ edutainment universe with new Super Sema original content, licensing, merchandise and publishing offerings.
Speaking to TechCrunch, co-founder and CEO of Kukua, Lucrezia Bisignani, spoke about the idea to create Super Sema stating “When I started this, we saw there were no African characters, and very few that were just Black.”
“So, we thought this was a much-needed space, not only for kids in Africa but globally. It’s for kids to feel represented and to grow up with cartoons that are not only white but also to understand different cultures and themes.”
Super Sema is Executive Produced by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o and tells the story of 10-year-old Sema — a superhero — with the powers of creativity, determination and team skills.
She uses science, tech, engineering, arts and math to create inventions from her secret lab to fight this evil robot villain — her town’s ruler — and his minions.
Sema was created according to Bisignani to “inspire” a generation of kids with team skills by making a fun, exciting series that creates an avenue for (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts and Math) STEAM learning.
