Amazon Leads Investment In Superplastic, Developing Janky & Guggimon Show: Here Are The Details And Other Investors

Character design studio Superplastic is announcing a new investment round and a partnership with a leading ecommerce company.

What Happened: Superplastic announced a new $20 million Series A investment round Wednesday, which was led by Amazon.com Inc AMZN in a partnership that could benefit its media unit Amazon Studios. 

Amazon led the investment through its Alexa Fund. Other investors in Superplastic include Craft Ventures, Galaxy Digital BRPHF, Kering, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Sony Japan SONY and Google Ventures, an investment arm of Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL.

Superplastic has now raised a total of $58 million to help expand its character universe.

Along with leading the investment round, Amazon unit Amazon Studios will develop the world’s first animated comedy series that stars synthetic celebrities Janky and Guggimon. Tentatively titled “The Janky & Guggimon Show,” the Superplastic-owned duo show is currently in development.

"'The Janky & Guggimon Show' follows the adventures of two lazy and spectacularly incompetent best friends who are hell-bent on getting rich and famous but leave a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake," the press release said.

Janky is known as the “lovable idiot who spends his spare time scamming celebrities.” Guggimon is listed as a “fashion icon and master manipulator.”

If the series is ordered, it will stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries worldwide and feature a cast of “animated and human celebrity friends.”

Under the terms of the deal, Amazon Studios will also have a first-look deal with Superplastic for additional content. Additional series and films could be created, starting Janky and Guiggimon or other Superplastic characters, according to the companies.

Related Link: Superplastic, Bored Ape Yacht Club Launch Vinyl Toy Collaboration: How You Can Get A BAYC Replica

Why It’s Important: The Alexa Fund is a venture capital arm of Amazon that focuses on "new media, smart consumer electronics, ambient intelligence and other areas of digital technology."

“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,” Alexa Fund Director Paul Bernard said.

Bernard added that the virtual celebrities from Superplastic could be a demonstration of a new class of intellectual property that appeals more to younger generations.

Superplastic said this could be an example of a reverse in character development. Oftentimes, merchandise, gaming and metaverse activities follow the success of an animated series. In this case, the Superplastic characters have already been successful in those areas and could now lend themselves to an animated series.

Both Janky and Guggimon have over one million followers on Instagram and have become celebrities across social media.

“Superplastic’s universe of synthetic celebrities have earned a cult following in every medium they’ve touched,” Superplastic CEO and founder 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.”

Superplastic sells tens of millions of dollars in real and virtual products every year. The company has previously collaborated with Gucci, Mercedes-Benz, Christie’s, J. Balvin, Paris Hilton, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Tommy Hilfiger and Fortnite.

Janky and Guggimon were released as playable skins in Fortnite, a game from Epic Games, which counts Tencent Holdings TCEHY and Sony as investors.

Superplastic also previously teamed with Bored Ape Yacht Club to launch the first ever vinyl toy collaboration in the NFT space.

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