Singapore's VC-backed One Animation acquired by UK strategic
One Animation, a VC-backed, Singapore-based cartoon studio, has been acquired by Moonbug Entertainment of the UK for an undisclosed sum.
Jungle Ventures has made at least two investments in One Animation for a combined USD 9.8m, according to AVCJ Research. The latest of these came in mid-2015. Hong Kong’s STI Financial Group reportedly backed the company as recently as 2018.
One Animation’s core intellectual property (IP) is Oddbods, a computer-animated series targeting children from about four to nine years old with no-dialogue shorts featuring several recurring characters in colourful suits.
More than 180 episodes have been produced since 2013. It has 32m YouTube subscribers and some 24bn total views across platforms connected to Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and Amazon.
Moonbug is best known as the owner of Cocomelon, the second-most the second-most subscribed YouTube channel with about 130m subscribers globally and the most-watched kids show on Netflix. The company, which also has bases in Singapore and Korea, leverages brand partnerships with Mattel, Nickelodeon, and Lego.
Moonbug was acquired last year as a bolt-on for Candle Media, which was formed by two former Disney executives, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. The Blackstone Group has supported the business from the outset.
One Animation’s team will be part of Moonbug and remain in Singapore, which will support an expansion for the UK company. In addition to Oddbods, important IP from One Animation includes titles such as Antiks, Insectibles and Rob the Robot.
“One Animation is a fantastic addition, not only for its successful franchises, but also for its capabilities and scale, and the opportunity to further enhance a dynamic Singapore-based hub for Moonbug as a rapidly growing family entertainment powerhouse,” Mayer and Staggs said according to The Business Times.
Children’s entertainment has proven an attractive category for private equity investors targeting media because the content is often culturally borderless and therefore conducive to a massive global audience. A typical expansion model is to build viewership on free-to-watch platforms such as YouTube before establishing more lucrative partnerships with the likes of Netflix.
Previous investment activity in this space includes NewQuest Capital acquiring India’s Cosmos-Maya from Emerald Media, an Asian media platform backed by KKR, for an estimated USD 90m. Emerald acquired Cosmos, whose WowKidz YouTube channel has clocked more than 35bn views since 2021, for an undisclosed sum in 2018.
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