Amazon said its Alexa Fund is leading a $20 million investment in Superplastic, a digital studio that creates synthetic celebrities.
Amazon Studio is developing an animated comedy series starring two of Superplastic’s characters, Janky and Guggimon. The series will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
Amazon has also signed a first-look deal with Superplastic to create additional series and films starring other Superplastic characters.
“As we expand the Alexa Fund to address a wider range of consumer technologies that include ambient computing, smart devices, and the future of entertainment, we’re very excited to add Superplastic to our portfolio,” Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund, said. “Superplastic’s virtual celebrities delight audiences and meet their customers where they are, and we see them as demonstrative of a new class of IP that is going to be increasingly relevant with younger generations. We are excited to be an investor and to continue to help Superplastic and Amazon’s Media and Entertainment teams identify more ways to delight customers.”
The Janky & Guggimon Show follows the adventures of two lazy and spectacularly incompetent friends who are hell-bent on getting rich and famous but leave a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake, the companies said. Janky is a loveable idiot who spends his spare time scamming celebrities, while Guggimon is a fashion icon and master manipulator who’s too narcissistic to care.
In addition to Amazon’s Alexa Fund, others investing in the new Series A round of funding for Superplastic include Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Kering, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures and Betaworks. This latest round brings Superplastic's total funding to $58 million, The funds will be used to support the expansion of the Superplastic character universe.
“Superplastic’s universe of synthetic celebrities have earned a cult following in every medium they’ve touched,” Superplastic founder and CEO Paul Budnitz said. “The new collaboration partnership with Amazon Studios reaches a massive audience and provides a new playground for us to wreak havoc worldwide. We're grateful for the investment the Amazon Alexa Fund gave us to help us continue to grow the Superplastic Universe.” ■
