Unomi is a developer of software to help animators. The focus is on reducing production time and the cost for content creation by anywhere from 30% to 70%. The company has also set up an equity crowdfunding campaign. To invest in Unomi, the minimum is $1,000.
The founder and CEO is Obi Onyejekwe. One of his prior ventures is Nito, which he sold to AOL. He has also provided marketing services to Fortune 500 companies and leading entertainment operators like Spike, BET and Nickelodeon.
The team for Unomi also includes:
- Arama Brown, the lead software engineer. She is a full-stack software engineer who has consulted with a myriad of businesses and startups. In 2015, her team placed in a hackathon for the International Women’s Media Foundation.
- Llama D’Attore, who is also a full-stack developer. D’Attore has a strong background with 3D software tools.
How It Works
The animation and video game industry has certainly made considerable progress over the years. The graphics have gotten to the point where they are incredibly immersive and life-like.
Yet despite this, the development of games remains highly labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive. It’s similar to a feature film. But Unomi’s vision is to attempt to disrupt the traditional model. Essentially, the technology is about bringing high levels of automation to the process — without sacrificing the quality of the production.
Unomi is a software-as-a-service platform, which means that the company charges a subscription for the technology and the system is based in the cloud. Of course, this approach is the standard in the software world and has propelled the growth of companies like Salesforce (NYSE:CRM).
At the core of Unomi is a voice recognition system, which can understand multiple languages. This is the interface for the creation process. The platform also has sophisticated motion capture functions (this helps to mimic human movements). The result is that an animator can quickly develop 2D and 3D animated characters.
As for the product road map, the company is planning to release a variety of new capabilities. They include a 3D object plug-in for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) software that used augmented and virtual reality capabilities.
The market opportunity is definitely large. The company estimated the global spending in the animation industry at $244 billion.
And yes, there are also several niches Unomi can benefit from like:
- A $3 billion market for universities teaching video game marketing, animation and graphic design.
- A $10 billion market for YouTube animation content creators.
- And a $24 billion market for animation and ad agencies.
Should You Invest in Unomi?
So far, Unomi has raised only $1,000. But then again, there are 35 days left in the funding.
Note that the crowdfunding round is at the seed stage and the valuation is at $5 million. The equity instrument is a Crowd Note, which functions like a typical convertible note. This means that you will not receive stock until a trigger event occurs like an acquisition or IPO.
But this is not the only funding for the company. Note that — during the past year — Unomi has raised over $200,000 from two other convertible notes.
But of course, given that this is an early stage company, investing in Unomi is very risky. Keep in mind that the competitive landscape is intense and there are numerous large companies in the space. They have enormous resources and talent to create next-generation technologies.
Last year the company generated only $2,551 in revenues and had a net loss of $138,863. Also note that Unomi has not disclosed any customers. In fact, when compared to other crowdfunding deals, the investor profile is relatively sparse.
Thus, when evaluating whether to invest or not, it is best to realize that it may take a long time to get to liquidity as the company will likely need to raise much more capital in the coming years.
Tom Taulli (@ttaulli) is an advisor and author of various books and online courses about technology, including Artificial Intelligence Basics, The Robotic Process Automation Handbook and Learn Python Super Fast. He is also the founder of WebIPO, which was one of the first platforms for public offerings during the 1990s. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
Investing through equity and real estate crowdfunding or asset tokenization requires a high degree of risk tolerance. Despite what individual companies may promise, there’s always the chance of losing a portion, or the entirety, of your investment. These risks include:
1) Greater chance of failure
2) Risk of fraudulent activity
3) Lack of liquidity
4) Economic downturns
5) Dearth of investor education
Read more: Private Investing Risks
