KENYA – Oscar award winner Lupita Nyong’o, has partnered with tech startup Kukua, to launch first kid’s animated series in Africa.
“We’re super excited to announce that the extraordinary Lupita Nyong’o joined us to produce ‘Super Sema’. Our new YouTube Originals series is Africa’s first kid superhero animated series,” read a statement on Kukua’s social media page.
Kukua’s mission is to empower children of the 21st century with the skills and capacity to dream beyond what they think is possible and to imagine and create a better world.
“This mission brought to life Super Sema, a young African girl who uses creativity, determination and steam powers to change the world.”
The statement continued to say that Lupita embodies all that Super Sema represents, so it really is a dream come true for them to have her on their team.
Lupita will voice a special guest character in the series and will be the voice of the official trailer.
“We’re super excited to announce that the extraordinary Lupita Nyong’o joined us to produce ‘Super Sema’. Our new YouTube Originals series is Africa’s first kid superhero animated series”
“This is Sema, an extraordinary African girl on a mission to change the world with the power of determination, creativity, science and technology!” wrote Lupita on her Instagram page.
The move comes just days after Lupita announced that her kid’s book ‘Sulwe’ is going to be an animated Netflix movie.
“Thank you to the readers of all ages who have joined Sulwe on her starry ride. I’m so excited for this next adventure,” she wrote.
Founded by Lucrezia Bisignani, Kukua is an education entertainment company building a pan-African children’s franchise around Sema, Africa’s first animated child heroine.
Lucrezia is a graduate of Singularity University in Silicon Valley at NASA, and previously trained as an actress at The Oxford School of Drama.
She was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30, 2019 social entrepreneurs list, was named amongst the 100 most influential Italian women in technology, was selected by MIT as a SOLVE fellow and to speak at WIRED 2016 as one of the women who are changing the world.
In 2018, Kukua received an investment of US$2.5 million from firstminute capital in a seed 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.
Liked this article? Subscribe to DealStreet Africa News, our regular email newsletter with the latest news, deals and insights from Africa’s business, economy and more. SUBSCRIBE HERE
