{"id":239667,"date":"2025-09-10T12:52:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=239667"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:52:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:52:27","slug":"harbourview-leads-30m-investment-in-oscar-winning-animation-studio-lion-forge-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/harbourview-leads-30m-investment-in-oscar-winning-animation-studio-lion-forge-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"HarbourView leads $30m investment in Oscar-winning animation studio Lion Forge Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

HarbourView Equity Partners has led a $30 million investment round in Lion Forge Entertainment<\/a>, the animated and live-action studio behind Oscar-winning animated short, Hair Love<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The news arrives three months after HarbourView led an $85 million<\/b> investment<\/a> in Paris-headquartered\u00a0kids and family content-focused entertainment firm Animaj<\/b>. Animaj uses proprietary GenAI production tools and what it calls a \u201cmulti-platform franchise-building model\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Animaj deal came less than a week after HarbourView secured<\/a> $500 million<\/b> in additional debt financing from investment giant KKR<\/b>, secured via a private securitization backed by its music portfolio.<\/p>\n

It followed a previous $500 million<\/b>\u00a0in debt financing secured by HarbourView\u00a0in March 2024<\/a>, through a private securitization backed by its catalog of music royalties, and led by KKR.<\/p>\n

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The latest investment adds to HarbourView\u2019s growing portfolio of media and IP assets, which spans film, television, music, and content companies such as Mucho Mas Media and MACRO.<\/p>\n

Established\u00a0in 2021<\/a>\u00a0by former Tempo Music CEO\u00a0Sherrese Clarke\u00a0<\/strong>with backing from Apollo Global Management, HarbourView Equity Partners has acquired over 70 music catalogs encompassing over\u00a035,000<\/strong>\u00a0songs across both master recordings and publishing income streams.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s portfolio includes music from\u00a0T-Pain<\/a>, James Fauntleroy,\u00a0George Benson<\/a>, Noel Zancanella, Fleetwood Mac\u2019s\u00a0Christine McVie<\/a>, Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo,\u00a0Nelly<\/a>, Jeremih, Wiz Khalifa, Kane Brown, Full Force and more.<\/p>\n

Less than a month ago, Billboard <\/i>reported<\/a>, citing sources, that HarbourView is close to completing<\/a> a music rights deal with metal band Slipknot<\/b>.<\/p>\n

HarbourView reports to have amassed roughly\u00a0$2.67 billion<\/strong> in regulatory assets under management.<\/p>\n

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Lion Forge Entertainment<\/b>, described as \u201cone of the few Black-owned entertainment studios of scale in North America,\u201d is part of media and sports-focused firm Polarity.<\/p>\n

The company develops and produces animated and live action content targeting kids and family, young adult, and adult audiences.<\/p>\n

Both the Steward Family and Polarity will retain majority ownership of the studio founded in 2019 by David<\/b> Steward<\/b> II<\/b>.<\/p>\n

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Commenting on the deal, HarbourView Founder and CEO Sherrese<\/b> Clarke<\/b> said: \u201cWe believe that content has the extraordinary power to influence the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“This is a unique moment in the kids & family space and Lion Forge is seizing an opportunity to lean into its ability to tell compelling stories authentically and cultivate global franchises at scale.”<\/p>\n

Sherrese<\/b> Clarke, HarbourView Equity Partners<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Added Clarke: “This is a unique moment in the kids & family space and Lion Forge is seizing an opportunity to lean into its ability to tell compelling stories authentically and cultivate global franchises at scale.<\/p>\n

“This synchronizes with our vision of how the next generation of multiplatform media companies can grow \u2013 by introducing fresh images, ideas and paradigms that reflect the evolving world in which we live and creating culturally authentic and socially relevant content.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe work with incredible creators and exceptional IP, and the backing of HarbourView will allow us to develop and invest in expanding our library.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephanie Sperber<\/b>, Lion Forge Entertainment<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Stephanie Sperber<\/b>, President and Chief Creative Officer of Lion Forge Entertainment, said: \u201cWe work with incredible creators and exceptional IP, and the backing of HarbourView will allow us to develop and invest in expanding our library.<\/p>\n

\u201cSherese and her team see what we see \u2013 an opportunity in the marketplace for premium kids, family and YA franchises, which motivates us to double down on what we believe we do best \u2013 create global content and build franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a validating moment for our young company.”<\/p>\n

David Steward II, Lion Forge Entertainment<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David Steward II, Founder, Lion Forge Entertainment, added: \u201cSherrese is a trailblazing investor, leading a culture-driving company. Her knowledge and track record will be immensely additive as we continue to scale our company and properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a validating moment for our young company. The synergy between the shrewd investment strategy of HarbourView and the franchise-building blueprint at Lion Forge will enable us collectively to optimize opportunities at the nexus of entertainment, culture and content and grow into a category defining leader from a position of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lion Forge plans to deploy the funding toward expanding its content library and accelerating development across its operations.<\/p>\n

The studio has also formed partnerships with Penguin Young Readers <\/b>to adapt children’s books and recently collaborated with Game of Thrones <\/i><\/b>creator George R.R. Martin <\/b>to develop an adult animated feature based on his novella A Dozen Tough Jobs<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Other projects by Lion Forge include a deal with TalesVision<\/b> to expand their short-form YouTube film Lostlings<\/i><\/b> <\/i>into a long-form series; a first-look deal with Oware<\/b> to develop global kids and family and young adult content; and a deal with Rebel<\/b>\u00a0Girls<\/b> to create unscripted content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investment arrives three months after HarbourView secured $500m in additional debt financing from investment giant KKR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":239704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[130371,131657,134558,134557],"class_list":["post-239667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-harbourview","tag-harbourview-equity-partners","tag-lion-forge-entertainment","tag-sherrese-clarke"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239667"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239705,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239667\/revisions\/239705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}