Three Japanese rights holders, Toei Animation, TBS Group and TV Tokyo Holdings, have taken stakes in Nakama, Inc., the San Francisco company behind the anime licensing marketplace AniBiz, Nakama said on 27 October. Variety put the round at an initial $6m. TV Tokyo Holdings has disclosed its own share: $2m.
Key facts
- Investors: Toei Animation, TBS Group and TV Tokyo Holdings, named by Nakama as AniBiz’s first strategic backers
- Round: an initial $6m, Variety reported; TV Tokyo Holdings says it is putting in $2m
- AniBiz lists more than 30 licensors, up from 20 when it went live in July
- From 27 October any company can register free, pass verification and contact rights holders directly
- Founders include Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, chief executive Brady McCollum and head of business development Sae Whan Song
The money is small. Who is paying it is the story. Three owners of valuable anime catalogues have backed a marketplace that lets a toy maker in Mexico or a games studio in Poland approach them without an agent. For anyone who buys anime rights for merchandise, games or events, it is a sign that Japanese licensors want a direct channel to smaller buyers abroad.
The deal
Nakama’s release names the three backers but gives no amounts. The $6m figure comes from Variety’s report of 27 October. The only amount a company has published is TV Tokyo’s: in a release dated 28 October in Tokyo, the broadcaster said it had decided to invest $2m. Nikkei reported that TBS is investing through SAND B, a subsidiary of TBS Holdings, and that the investors’ percentage holdings in Nakama have not been disclosed.
For Toei Animation, the studio behind One Piece and Dragon Ball, senior executive officer Masayuki Endo said that opening its IP to new partners “requires the right infrastructure” and that Toei was investing to help AniBiz become the industry standard. TV Tokyo Holdings senior managing director Toshiyuki Hiraoka said the partnership would widen the group’s licensee network worldwide.
How the platform works
AniBiz is a business-to-business directory and deal room: licensors list titles, licensees create verified profiles and request meetings. Since 27 October sign-up has been open to companies anywhere, from manufacturers to food brands, with no industry contacts required, Nakama says.
The licensor list has grown since launch. Newer arrivals include ABC Animation, DMM.com, Shochiku, ShoPro and Yostar; they join launch partners such as Avex Pictures, Pony Canyon, TOHO Global and TV Asahi. In a July interview with Anime News Network, Gao said the basic licensee tier is free and a pro tier, at $49 a month at launch, adds a data feed of titles and their production committees.
Who is behind it
Nakama was set up by the team that founded and ran Crunchyroll, the anime streaming service Sony Pictures Entertainment bought from AT&T for $1.18bn in 2021. Gao co-founded Crunchyroll; McCollum and Song are former executives there, Variety reported.
Why TV Tokyo is buying in
TV Tokyo places the investment inside its long-term plan to 2035 and what it calls a Contents as a Service strategy: earning from its anime across broadcast, streaming, merchandise and events. Nikkei reported that TV Tokyo will consider listing new and older titles on AniBiz alongside its usual sales through agents and trade fairs, and that Latin America is among the markets it wants to reach.
In Tokyo the news broke in the early hours of 28 October, the opening day of TIFFCOM, the Tokyo festival’s market (28–30 October). TIFFCOM and the Marché du Film have also confirmed that the Japan IP Market returns to Cannes in May 2027, and anime licensing is one route to the government’s goal of ¥20tn ($127bn) in overseas content sales by 2033, restated by prime minister Sanae Takaichi at the Tokyo festival.
What is not known
Toei Animation and TBS have not published their amounts, and nobody has disclosed Nakama’s valuation or whether more investors will join. Nakama has not said how many licences have been signed through AniBiz since July. For film-side dealmaking at the market, see our roundup of TIFFCOM deals.
Our reading
Japanese licensors have long sold abroad through agents and trade fairs, a system built for large partners. By backing AniBiz, Toei Animation, TBS and TV Tokyo are paying for a lower-cost route to the long tail of licensees: regional retailers, cafés, mobile games. TV Tokyo’s $2m is modest for a group its size, which suggests the aim is influence over a shared tool, not a financial bet.
The question for agents and sub-licensing companies outside Japan is whether this cuts them out or feeds them leads. The evidence that will settle it is volume: how many verified licensees sign up now that registration is open, whether larger holders such as Aniplex or Kadokawa join as investors, and whether Nakama publishes a count of deals closed through the platform within its first year.
Sources
- Nakama, Inc. release via PR Newswire, 27 October 2026 (investors, licensor count, open sign-up, quotes)
- TV Tokyo Holdings release via PR Times, 28 October 2026 Tokyo time ($2m investment, strategy)
- Variety, 27 October 2026 ($6m initial funding, founders)
- Nikkei, 28 October 2026 (TBS investing through SAND B, holdings undisclosed, TV Tokyo’s plans)
- Anime News Network, 27 October 2026 (licensee pricing tiers, from a July interview with Kun Gao)
- C21Media (investment by the three; paywalled, headline and summary only)
- AniBiz newsroom and press kit
- Sony Pictures Entertainment, 9 August 2021 (Crunchyroll acquisition, $1.175bn)