Nimble Collective Receives $8.5 Million Investment

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Nimble Collective has closed an $8.5 million round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with plans to develop a new cloud-based platform.

Nimble Collective is developing the animation industry’s first cloud-based, end-to-end platform and the world’s largest online animation community, targeting approximately 10 million professional and aspiring animators around the globe. The platform will allow users to collaborate, develop and distribute their creative content. It is slated to become available to select partners later this year. Nimble Collective has also named NEA venture partner Greg Papadopoulos to its board as well as animated film industry advisors Mark Walsh, Eric Darnell and Peter Ramsey, whose collective credits include such films as Rise of the Guardians, Toy Story 2, Madagascar and Monsters, Inc.

“The animation content market generates $90 billion annually, yet millions of talented animators simply do not have access to the expensive studio-quality technology tools and big budgets currently required to bring high-quality creative projects to fruition,” said Michael Howse, co-founder and investor of Nimble Collective. “Nimble will change that by democratizing the market with the world’s first collaborative, cloud-based platform for generating content that animators can distribute and profit from in exciting new ways.”

“Nimble is delivering studio caliber tools and collaboration capabilities—all in the cloud—that free-up animators to do what they do best—create,” noted Nimble co-founder and CCO Rex Grignon. “Our goal is to enable a new generation of creatives to create, collaborate and prosper by building their own unique, modern content to reach huge audiences.”

“Nimble is on the verge of creating a tectonic shift in the marketplace with an innovative platform that will disrupt the status quo of animation content creation,” added Papadopoulos. “Created by world-class animators, the Nimble platform opens up an unprecedented level of new opportunities for the 10-plus million professional and aspiring animators around the world.”