• Animation tech startup Cheehoo has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Greycroft to develop AI-powered tools for streamlining animation production.
  • Founded by executives from Rideback and DreamWorks Animation, Cheehoo aims to simplify workflows for studios, creators, and independent filmmakers.

Cheehoo, a startup focused on using artificial intelligence to streamline animation production, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Greycroft. Other participants include Point72 Ventures, Basis Set, Headline Asia, Powerhouse Capital, Playground Productions, and Rideback.

The Los Angeles-based company, founded by a team of Hollywood executives and technologists, aims to make animation creation faster and more accessible. Cheehoo was established by Rideback’s co-CEOs Michael LoFaso and Jonathan Eirich, Rideback co-founder Dan Lin, former DreamWorks Animation president Chris deFaria, and former Apple AI researchers Yao-Hung Hubert Tsai and Wei-Cheng Kuo.

Cheehoo’s platform offers tools that assist creators with data annotation, file conversions, and format standardization, while integrating with existing animation platforms like Maya and Unreal Engine. Its AI models help with character and asset creation, and the platform allows users to toggle AI features on or off depending on the creative needs.

It also supports third-party AI models from companies like OpenAI and Runway for additional functions such as motion stylization and scene composition.

In a conversation with TechCrunch, Michael LoFaso explained the company’s motivation:

“What we found through Rideback is that in Hollywood, the process of creating animation was getting expensive and complex. It was starting to become tougher for creators to get their idea out in the world. We wanted to create a tool that was native to the workflows of creators and make their lives easier.”

While Cheehoo has not yet disclosed launch partners, the company said it is already working with several intellectual property holders, studios, and creators.

Brentt Baltimore, principal at Greycroft, said the firm invested in Cheehoo because of its potential to lower production costs across the animation industry.

“Cheehoo has an opportunity to reduce the cost of animation production overall,” Baltimore said. “That means it can have sophisticated creators easily create animation films without having an expensive studio setup.”

Cheehoo plans to target enterprise clients and prosumers initially but is looking to expand into more consumer-facing products in the future. The move could position it against other startups in the animation technology space, including Cartwheel and Cinamon.

Founded in 2024, Cheehoo joins a growing number of startups aiming to bring AI-driven efficiencies to traditional media production workflows.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah