When Sixte de Vauplane talks about storytelling, he doesn’t just talk about screens or scripts. He talks about pipelines, proprietary models, and the centuries-old rituals of childhood wonder.
“I want Animaj to be the Pixar for the YouTube generation,” he says, without hesitation. “But unlike Pixar, we’re built digital-first. AI-native.”
Sixte isn’t new to startups. Before launching Animaj in 2022, he co-founded and scaled Nestor, a French food delivery startup acquired by Elior Group. This experience taught him one immutable lesson: execution beats ideas every time. He brought that discipline from his first venture straight into Animaj, where the product isn’t a meal or a delivery anymire—it’s narrative magic. The same urgency that drove rapid logistics now fuels a new kind of creative studio. It doesn’t just produce content; it acquires legacy children’s IP, revitalizes it using its own generative AI tools, and distributes across YouTube, TikTok, Disney+, Netflix, and even Roblox.
Take Pocoyo, a globally beloved character. When Animaj acquired the IP, it didn’t just repackage episodes. It reanimated the brand from the inside out.
“Historically, animation has been one of the most capital-intensive art forms. You need 400 people working two years to make a single feature. That model is dead,” Sixte explains. “We’re using GenAI to speed up pose prediction, motion interpolation, and character integrity workflows. It’s about giving artists superpowers.”
Unlike generalist tools like Sora or Runway, Animaj’s technology is trained exclusively on their own IP. “We’re not interested in being a generic engine,” he says. “Our stack is custom-built to empower our own franchises.”
After raising $85 million in June of this year, Animaj is prioritizing capital into three areas:
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Doubling Down on GenAI — with ambitions to apply it to more premium content, including original series and a feature film.
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IP Acquisition — aiming to acquire at least two new world-class franchises within the next six months.
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Franchise Flywheel — building holistic monetization engines around music, consumer products, interactive content, and licensing.
“We’re essentially building the Disney flywheel for a new era. But instead of theatrical release windows, we start on YouTube.”
Though Animaj is steeped in deep tech, Sixte rejects the false binary between artists and AI. He calls Hollywood’s resistance to GenAI predictable, even nostalgic. “There were people who thought movies with sound were stupid,” he laughs. “It’s the same resistance now. You can use AI ethically or unethically. Our goal is to make it artist-friendly.” He wants Animaj to be a magnet for creative talent worldwide. “Anyone can write a story. Not everyone can build an iconic one.” “Our end product isn’t the AI,” he clarifies. “It’s the story. The movie. The experience. That’s what lives on YouTube and Disney+. Our audience is parents and children. What they want is clear: safe, enriching, inspiring stories.”
That clarity of purpose is why Animaj has become one of the top five kids’ content companies on YouTube globally. Ask Sixte where he wants Animaj to be in five years, and he lights up: “I want to create the beloved IPs that my kids and their kids will grow up with. Franchises that inspire, empower, and travel across platforms and mediums.” He references the universe-building magic of Pixar he grew up with, but insists Animaj isn’t copying a formula. “Every generation has its studio. Ours should be born digital.”
For all the tech, funding, and scale, Sixte remains grounded in one principle: story first. “AI is how we make it. But the story is why we make it.” Animaj isn’t just reimagining kids’ content. It’s redesigning the creative economy for the children who will grow up in it.
