Oui Capital, an Africa-focused VC firm based in Lagos and Massachusetts, announced today that it has completed the first closing of its $30 million second fund, Oui Capital Mentors Fund II, as it seeks to strengthen its presence on the continent.
This streaming was born in January 2021 under the AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) model, meaning free and ad-funded platforms that are gaining ground worldwide. Riivi started in Chile and reached Peru and Colombia this year, adding 200,000 monthly users. Riivi has raised US$1.25 million in its pre-seed and seed rounds. Among its investors is the firm Sable. It also recently went through Start-Up Chile, a government accelerator that both funds and advises emerging companies.
Zedcrest Capital, a firm known for its debt and equity capital markets investments, but who recently started dabbling into venture investments, has launched a $10 million fund for pre-Series A stage startups in Africa.
Disney has agreed to license more than 200 characters, costumes, and environments (but not voices or talent likenesses) to OpenAI for Sora, its gen AI video platform. This is highly unusual for Disney, which generally sues AI models for copyright infringement; in fact, it sued Google for that a day before announcing the OpenAI deal. Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI, nicely illustrating how very eager they are to join the AI party.