Animation Producer Anton Capital Secures $100M+ Financing Via Blackrock To Expand Production Output

U.K.-based film and tv production company Anton Capital Entertainment is receiving a €100 million ($108 million) infusion of financing to subsidize future productions.

With this new financing, Anton plans to produce up to ten features annually with “the very best A-list cast and top-tier filmmakers … across all commercial genres on a global scale.” Animation plays a growing and significant role in the company’s gameplan.

The financing windfall comes from a group of institutional investors backed by asset management firm Blackrock, which currently has over $10 trillion of assets under management. It’s important to note that Blackrock rarely invests directly in companies, but rather manages investments on behalf of clients. Through investors, Blackrock also owns around 6.6% of The Walt Disney Company, making it the second-largest institutional investor in Disney.

“We have an amazing development and production team in place focused on creating high quality, premium entertainment,” Anton Capital founder Sébastien Raybaud said in a statement. “This exciting investment from Blackrock allows us to greenlight more ambitious projects, and expand these partnerships with exceptional film and tv producers. We have built a fantastic, well-capitalized company with a bold vision.”

Paul Braude, chief investment officer and head of BlackRock’s Direct Private Opportunities Group, added, “Our investment approach seeks out unique, compelling opportunities outside of core private markets, and we see significant potential in television and film. We have been impressed by Anton’s success to date and are pleased to contribute to its ongoing growth.”

Anton is the producer of two newly-completed stop-motion features: Sauvages (Savages), the just-premiered-at-Cannes film from My Life as a Zucchini director Claude Barras, and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which will premiere next month at Annecy. Both of those films were produced in partnership with Paris-based Charades. Anton and Charades are currently producing another animated feature, Night of the Zoopocalypse.

Anton Capital has also been involved in the production of Studiocanal’s Paddington 2, L’Atelier Animation’s Fireheart, and Aardman’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.