A Kenyan- and UK-based company behind the children's TV series Super Sema that featured Lupita Nyong'o has received a shot in the arm.
The company founded by Italian national Lucrezia Bisignani secured Ksh707 million in funding to help scale up operations as they seek to promote more educational content for children in Africa.
Kukua, which in Swahili translates to 'growth', stated that the 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.
This new development comes barely two weeks after YouTube Originals Kids & Family and Kukua released the official trailer for the new episodes.
Super Sema has been successful having landed a nomination for the NAACP Image Award category.
Nyong’o voices the role of Mama Dunia (Mother Nature) in the series. The animated series follows the life of Sema, an extraordinary young African girl who is a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics) genius.
The character is voiced by Stycie Waweru. Super Sema follows the experiences of the supposed extraordinary young African girl, who lives in the neo-African-futuristic community of Dunia (earth).
The show aims to fight stereotypes about people of colour and encourages children, and particularly girls to be innovative.
"Our programming will empower children to take what they’ve learned from the series into the real world to make, invent and play with intention," stated Vanessa Ford, Kukua Operations Chief.
Nyong’o not only serves as an Executive Producer of Super Sema but she is also a shareholder in Kukua, the startup founded in 2015 by Lucrezia Bisignani.
Securing funding for Kukua’s first project wasn’t easy as investors were unconvinced of its global appeal. Until “Black Panther.”
The movie was released to commercial and critical acclaim in 2018, and its success helped similar projects like Kukua secure investments.
The company raised Ksh294 million in seed funding from Africa-focused venture capital firm EchoVC and other investors.
