AniBiz, the business-to-business anime licensing platform operated by Nakama, has raised an initial $6 million from TBS Group, Toei Animation and TV Tokyo Holdings. The investment brings three major Japanese rights holders behind a service designed to make it easier for companies worldwide to find anime intellectual property and begin licensing discussions through one centralized platform.
The funding matters less as a consumer-facing product announcement than as a signal about the infrastructure underneath anime’s growing commercial footprint. Anime characters, shows and brands can extend into many categories, including games, merchandise, promotions and other licensed projects. Before any of that happens legitimately, prospective partners need to identify who controls the applicable rights and establish a business relationship. AniBiz’s stated aim is to make that first stage more accessible and organized.
Nakama launched AniBiz in July. Its founding team includes Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, alongside former Crunchyroll executives Brady McCollum and Sae Whan Song. McCollum is Nakama’s co-founder and CEO, while Song is co-founder and head of business development.
What AniBiz is trying to solve
AniBiz describes itself as a dedicated business-to-business, or B2B, marketplace for the global anime industry. B2B means the service is intended for companies dealing with other companies, rather than a storefront where fans buy episodes, figures or digital games directly.
In this case, the marketplace is meant to connect potential buyers with the rights holders behind anime IP. IP, short for intellectual property, is the umbrella term for the protected creative assets involved in a franchise or production. It can cover names, characters, art, stories and associated branding, though the exact scope of rights available for a particular deal can vary. The supplied details do not outline individual deal terms, licensing categories or titles, so the platform should not be read as a public catalogue of automatically purchasable rights.
Instead, AniBiz says it provides a centralized and secure environment in which global buyers can access anime IP and connect with licensors. That basic promise has practical value: prospective licensees need a credible route to the relevant owners, and licensors need a controlled way to evaluate potential partners. The platform’s pitch is that it can serve as a common meeting point rather than requiring businesses to begin solely through pre-existing personal contacts.
“Access to anime IP should not depend on who you know,” Song said, adding that the platform gives companies an official route into discussions with leading licensors.
That does not mean a listing guarantees approval. Licensing is still a permission-based business. A platform can help introduce participants and organize the path to an inquiry, but the rights holder retains control over whether to pursue a partnership and on what terms. This distinction is important for companies looking at anime as a route into games or physical products: easier discovery is not the same thing as unrestricted access to a franchise.
Backed by three major rights holders
The initial $6 million comes from TBS Group, Toei Animation and TV Tokyo Holdings. Their involvement gives AniBiz support from organizations that are directly connected to the creation, management and licensing of anime-related properties, not simply outside financial backers.
McCollum characterized the investment as evidence that major companies creating and licensing anime IP see AniBiz as a place where the industry can conduct business. The claim is naturally forward-looking, but the financial commitment is meaningful because the platform’s usefulness depends heavily on participation from rights holders. A marketplace needs inventory and credible counterparties. In licensing, that means authorized parties with IP to discuss, plus buyers who can turn that access into viable partnerships.
Toei Animation senior executive officer Masayuki Endo said the company sees the service as infrastructure that can both protect IP and open it to new partners. The two ideas are linked. A centralized system may give licensors a clearer, more formal way to receive interest from companies outside their familiar networks, while keeping the rights holder at the center of the process.
TV Tokyo Holdings senior managing director Toshiyuki Hiraoka said the partnership is intended to maximize the global value of anime IP and expand its licensee network across markets worldwide. For a platform whose purpose is international matchmaking, that is the clearest measure of the opportunity: connecting Japanese licensors to businesses that might otherwise lack an established entry point.
The licensor roster has grown past 30
AniBiz says it now hosts more than 30 anime licensors, up from 20 at launch. Newly added rights holders include ABC Animation, DMM.com, docomo Anime Store, Genco, GREE Entertainment, Shochiku, ShoPro and Sola Entertainment.
They join launch partners including ADK Emotions, Avex Pictures, CyberAgent, Dentsu Anime Solutions, DNP, FCC, Furyu Pictures, Hakuhodo DY MAP, Imagica, MBS, Pony Canyon, TAKARATOMY, TOHO Global, TV Asahi and YTE, among others.
The expansion from 20 licensors to more than 30 is an early indicator of participation, although it does not by itself reveal how many deals have been made through the platform, how much IP each participant is offering or which regions and product categories may be included. Those are separate questions that will determine the platform’s longer-term utility for specific buyers.
Still, breadth matters. Anime licensing is not one uniform market in which every company holds the same type of rights. Different organizations can be involved across production, broadcasting, distribution, merchandising and other functions. A larger group of participating licensors can make a central marketplace more useful, provided prospective buyers can understand who is available and pursue the right conversations.
Why this has implications for games
The announcement does not identify game projects, game licenses or game platforms. But it is relevant to the business environment around licensed games. A developer, publisher or other commercial partner exploring an anime collaboration needs a legitimate path to the appropriate rights holder before any project can move from concept to negotiation.
For smaller companies in particular, the claim that no existing anime-industry relationships are required may be the key part of AniBiz’s proposition. Established players often have networks built over years. Newer firms, overseas businesses and companies approaching anime licensing for the first time may not. A designated B2B service could reduce the uncertainty around where an initial licensing inquiry should go.
There are limits to what can be inferred. The announcement does not say that AniBiz standardizes contracts, sets license fees, clears rights for a particular country or streamlines approvals. Nor does it establish that every anime-related opportunity is available through the platform. Those details remain subject to rights-holder decisions and individual negotiations.
But discovery and introductions are not trivial steps. In a rights-driven business, finding a legitimate contact can be a major barrier before questions about creative direction, territory, platforms, duration and commercial terms can even be addressed. AniBiz is positioning itself around that front end of the process.
It also fits a broader industry reality: games are built and released amid a web of business partnerships, whether the subject is technology, publishing, events or licensed entertainment. Recent industry activity, such as game-focused programming planned around Gamescom Asia 2026, illustrates how commercial connections, audiences and creative projects intersect well beyond the act of making a game itself. AniBiz is targeting the licensing side of that larger ecosystem.
Open access is the central pitch
Nakama says AniBiz is open to any company interested in licensing anime, with no prior anime-industry relationships needed. The wording is notable because it frames access as the product. The company is not merely presenting a directory; it is presenting an official route into a sector that can otherwise appear opaque to an outsider.
For licensors, the potential advantage is exposure to a wider pool of potential partners without abandoning oversight. For buyers, the potential advantage is a clearer start to a process that can be difficult to navigate when they do not already know the relevant businesses. For anime fans, any eventual effect is indirect: a better-connected licensing market could create more opportunities for official projects, but the funding announcement does not promise particular games, products, series or release plans.
The $6 million investment and the involvement of TBS Group, Toei Animation and TV Tokyo Holdings give AniBiz an early foundation. Its next test will be whether its growing roster translates into productive, responsibly managed relationships between rights holders and companies seeking anime IP. At this stage, the concrete facts are a new round of backing, more than 30 participating licensors and a platform that wants to become a common entry point for global anime licensing.
