African Edutainment startup, Kukua, raises $6 million in a round led by Tencent and Alchimia

Kukua, an Africa based edutainment startup, announced that it has raised $6 million in a series A funding round led by Chinese based internet giant, Tencent and Italian based VC Alchimia. In 2018, the company raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Echo VC, the leading Africa-focused venture capital firm, alongside Founders Factory, Kima Ventures, Burda Media, as well as a strong group of angels including Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen (Former VP of mobile at Uber and Dropbox)

Other investors in the new funding round include EchoVC, firstminute Capital and Auxxo Female Catalyst.

Founded in 2018 by Lucrezia Bisignani , Kukua is the creator of of “Super Sema,” the first African animated superhero franchise. Set in an Afro-futuristic world, SUPER SEMA is an exciting roller coaster of daring adventures, STEM inventions and kid-power to save the village from a heartless AI Robot.

Super Sema follows the world-changing adventures of an extraordinary young girl Sema and her twin brother MB on their mission to protect their African town of Dunia from the villainous Tobor. Sema knows that with determination, creativity, and a helping hand from the amazing world of science and technology, anything is possible!

According to the company, this investment will support its goal to continue building an IP-centric kids’ “edutainment” universe with new Super Sema original content, licensing, merchandise and publishing offerings.

Super Sema’s first season was a hit. YouTube picked it up, acquired the distribution rights and launched the series on its YouTube Originals channel in March 2021. Since its launch, its YouTube Channel has garnered over 40 million views. The show — executive produced by Lupita Nyong’o — received an NAACP Image Awards nomination for Outstanding Animated Series this January. The Oscar-winning actress is also a shareholder in the company. Other members of the Super Sema team include COO Vanessa Ford, CFO Giovanni Bisignani and four-times BAFTA winner Claudia Lloyd (producer and creative director).

The show’s second season was greenlit by YouTube Originals and premiered this month.

Interestingly though the company is based in Kenya and UK, Super Sema is most watched in America which constitutes 60% of its audience. Together with UK and Kenya, all three countries make up the top three countries where Super Sema is most watched. Super Sema’s target audience is between the ages of 4 to 8, and is on YouTube Originals and major linear TV networks in Africa, like Citizen TV in Kenya and SABC in South Africa.

In 2017, Airtel Africa partnered with Kukua in a bid to improve children literacy skills through interactive mobile games.