The nursery of "Angry Birds" Rovio invests in "Moominvalley" Prodco Gutsy

Gutsy Animations (Finland), the Emmy Award-nominated studio behind the acclaimed international film Moomin Valley 3D animation series, has secured a € 5 million investment from one of the world's most successful Finnish mobile gaming companies, Rovio Entertainment, creator Angry Birds franchising.

“I am thrilled to have Rovio join us and strengthen our efforts to create meaningful international content that rests on Nordic values. This investment demonstrates that growth doesn't always have to come from afar and is an incredible demonstration of confidence in Gutsy Animations' ability to create distinctive, high-quality content for the global market, ”said Marika Makaroff, founder and CCO of Gutsy Animations. "Furthermore, by creating a collaboration between three Finnish companies, this partnership shows a high level of trust in Finnish know-how, as well as serving to highlight the power of storytelling through shared values. Thanks to this investment, we will have a valuable opportunity to continue to write Finnish success stories that span the world of entertainment and culture and follow in the footsteps of our famous Emmy Award nominated adaptation of the original Moomin stories, Moomin Valley".

Additionally, Rovio has obtained exclusive rights from Moomin Characters Ltd and Rights & Brands, the global licensing agency for the Moomin brand, to develop and publish Moomin IP-based games for any platform and exclusive rights for all mobile platforms. Rovio's first Moomin game, based on the original story and world created by Tove Jansson and inspired by the Moomin Valley graphics, is already under development and is expected to reach soft launch later in 2021.

“Gutsy Animations did an amazing job of bringing the rich stories and seductive atmosphere of Moominvalley to life. We are honored and excited to enter into this partnership with Moomin Characters and Gutsy Animations, "said Alex Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio." Working with Gutsy and Moomin will give us the opportunity to introduce this iconic brand to a new audience throughout the world and at the same time we will certainly delight our existing fans. This partnership will diversify our IP portfolio, which is a critical step in our consistent growth strategy. We are already working on a mobile game that is still in the early stage of development and will we expect it to reach soft launch by the end of the year ".

"Moomin Characters is looking to expand their digital footprint and offering, it's great to join forces with Rovio Entertainment, which brings vast experience and success to this space," added Roleff Kråkström, Managing Director of Moomin Characters. “We are confident that this partnership will open up new opportunities not only for the Moomin brand, but also for further Nordic history. This partnership marks an important milestone in our strategy to bring local Nordic creations to the international market. "

Gutsy Animations, founded in 2016 by award-winning creator Makaroff, is a Finnish production house that creates high-quality content for the international market. The company's flagship production, award-winning Moominvalley, has a record 16 million starts on YLE's streaming platform in Finland. Gutsy Animations believes the world needs kind, intelligent, meaningful and courageous content for a global audience.

Rovio Entertainment Corporation is a global mobile games company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded more than 4,5 billion times so far. Rovio is best known for the global Angry Birds brand, which started as a popular mobile game in 2009, and has since evolved from games to various entertainment and consumer products into the brand's licensing, as well as The Angry Birds movie (2016) and The Angry Birds 2 Movie (2019). Rovio is based in Finland.

Moomin Characters Oy Ltd is the official copyright holder of all Moomin characters created by Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson in her books and comics between 1945 and 1980. All characters from Moomin Valley are registered trademarks all over the world. The company was founded in the 50s by Tove Jansson (1914-2001) and his brother Lars Jansson to take care of the Moomin copyrights and is still run by family members. Rights and Brands is the worldwide licensing agent of the company.

www.gutsy.fi | www.rovio.com | www.moomin.com