Sekai raises €10 million and secures a license to develop Naruto consumer apps

Sekai, a new studio founded by four die-hard anime fans, is on a mission to create official anime entertainment experiences that fans have always dreamed about outside of Japan.

Samy Therain, CEO at Sekai.

Anime made us dream and cry, offered us some of the most epic moments of our lives. But until now, the entertainment offerings around it have always been limited, especially outside of Japan. We always dreamt there could be more: entertainment experiences that match what we felt watching the episodes. We are planning to do just that with mobile apps, digital collectibles, and stadium shows.

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This dream fueled them for more than 2 years towards this day: Sekai is thrilled to announce its first collaboration with TV TOKYO to develop official mobile apps on one of the top anime globally: Naruto.  It is a first for a Western studio.

Saiki Hiroaki, head of global distribution at TV TOKYO

I was truly amazed at the authentic and profound passion for Naruto conveyed by Sekai’s team right from the start of our discussions.

The achievement of this incredible milestone comes with the securing of €10 million in funding from a diverse group of investors. This investment round led by Skycatcher includes contributions from entertainment-focused investors like Makers Fund, consumer and tech investors such as 776 (through Alexis Ohanian), New Wave, Cygni, Motier, and Kima. It also included notable business angels including Kun Gao (founder of Crunchyroll), Laurent Ritter and Alexandre Yazdi (founders of Voodoo), Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort (founders of Sorare), artists like Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park or Orelsan, athletes like Rudy Gobert and Randal Kolo Muani.

Alexis Ohanian, Founder & General Partner at Seven Seven Six.

Seven Seven Six is proud to back the team at Sekai as they bring a better anime experience to even more fans. The team’s new licensing agreement with Naruto should only supercharge this mission. Just like Naruto mastering the Rasengan, Sekai is spinning up a powerful new way for fans to engage with their favorite anime.

In addition to this substantial financial backing, Sekai is also proud to highlight the strategic investment from TV TOKYO. This investment positions Sekai as one of the rare foreign companies backed by one of the most prominent players in the Japanimation industry. 

Sekai’s achievement only confirms a larger trend in the Japanese anime industry. For long deemed as a niche, it has been massively growing over the past few years.

Sia Kamalie, Founder of Skycatcher, shares more about the opportunity.

The Anime industry has over 600m fans globally and is set to double in coming years. Even though it’s already a $30b industry today, we just hit a tipping point where the international market is now bigger than the domestic Japanese market where Anime was born. There’s an opportunity here for Sekai to grow Anime globally by building deeply social mobile apps and novel digital collectible experiences. We see a huge white space here to serve the most passionate and dedicated fan bases.

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With this partnership and the strong support of its investors, Sekai is poised to revolutionize the way anime is experienced by fans around the world.

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