Genius Brands International, Inc., a content and brand management company, creates and licenses multimedia content for toddlers to tweens worldwide. The company offers Rainbow Rangers, an animated series about the adventures of seven magical girls; Llama Llama, an animated series; SpacePop is a music and fashion driven animated property; Thomas Edison's Secret Lab, a STEM-based comedy adventure series; and Warren Buffet's Secret Millionaire's Club, an animated series for kids. It also develops animated series, such as Superhero Kindergarten and Baby Genius. In addition, the company acts as a licensing agent for Llama Llama. It serves various customers and partners, including broadcasters, consumer products licensees, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. The company was formerly known as Pacific Entertainment Corporation and changed its name to Genius Brands International, Inc. in October 2011. Genius Brands International, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is based in Beverly Hills, California.

History

2014–2015

Genius Brands International was formed in November 2013 from the merger between A2 Entertainment and pre-merger Genius Brands , with the Heywards of A2 taking over as top executives. Pre-merged Genius Brands CEO Klaus Moeller moved to vice president of special markets at GBI. GBI's board of directors included former California governor Gray Davis and American Greetings Corp. president-COO Jeff Weiss.The Baby Genius' video on demand subscription service launched in April 2014. GBI launched a VOD channel of children's entertainment called Kid Genius in October 2015, through Comcast's Xfinity On Demand.In June 2014, Genius Brands agreed to license Baby Genius, Secret Millionaires Club and Thomas Edison's Secret Lab to LeapFrog Enterprises for kids' learning tablets. The first few Leap Frog tablet apps from the deal were released in December 2014, with two for both Baby Genius and Secret Millionaires Club.GBI issued and sold 4.3 million shares of stock and warrants in November 2014 to investors and management at par $1. The raised working capital would be used for brand marketing, new property acquisition and development and the Kid Genius channel.

2016–2019

Penguin Young Readers and author/illustrator Anna Dewdney signed an agreement with Genius to develop animated content and manage licensing for the Llama Llama franchise in February 2016. The products, from apparel to toys, are slated to arrive in 2016.In February 2016, Genius Brands and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced a multi-year marketing and distribution agreement for four existing properties plus three under development. Existing properties under the deal are SpacePop, a new original Baby Genius series, Secret Millionaires Club and Stan Lee’s Mighty 7. The new Baby Genius series would be relaunched on Amazon.com in September.The company paired for another Sony agreement in April 2016. This agreement was with Sony Music Entertainment's Legacy Recordings for the Genius Brands Music label. The label would have two age-focused imprints, for toddlers, Baby Genius, and children-to-tweens, Kid Genius.In September 2016, GBI had teamed up with Rob Minkoff and Shane Morris on a preschool animated series. The series is Rainbow Rangers, featuring others of the rainbow magical girls, who protect the earth. Main designed were by Brittany Myers and Ruben Aquino. At the time, the company expect to have the concept debut as a third quarter 2017 special and a full series start in second quarter 2018.Kid Genius channel expanded to a small network of on demand channels with its offerings first on Comcast on Demand with a Baby Genius TV channel. The company launched Kid Genius Cartoons Plus! on Amazon Channels starting on September 28, 2017. Plus included all GBI programming plus other acquired programming. Genius Brands Network in July 2019 added content from kids gaming company Tankee to its channels.In January 2017, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment expanded its distribution deal to all properties and took an equity stake in Genius Brands. In November 2017, the company filed with the SEC to resell 1.65 million shares of stock.Genius issued a convertible debt round bringing in $4.5 million in August 2018 which was led by financier Robert Wolf of 32 Ventures and was oversubscribed bringing in both existing and new investors. In September 2018, Bank Lemi extended a $6 million bank facility allowing Genius to produced a second season of Llama Llama.

2020–present

In May 2020, the company's stock value jump 2000% with four announced stock sales that month, after being put on notice by NASDAQ for low share value which might trigger de listing. Reason for the jump was the company announced its Kartoon Channel launch date and Mattel's Rainbow Rangers toys have gain shelf space at Wal-Mart in the summer 2020. With an announcement of registering a stockholder stock sale on June 4, the stock broke its run up with a 13% drop. Kartoon Channel, which is the merger of its existing channels, launched on June 15, 2020, on four more platforms.On July 6, 2020, Genius Brands acquired exclusive worldwide rights to use Stan Lee's name, physical likeness and signature from POW! Entertainment as well as licensing rights to his name and over 100 of POW's original IPs. The assets will be placed under a new joint-venture with POW!, called Stan Lee Universe, managed by Genius. Michael E. Uslan was hired to advise Genius on Lee Universe film and TV projects. Genius then arranged a publishing deal with Archie Comics for Stan Lee Universe comic book imprint starting with Kindergarten Cop adaptation title.On October 27, 2021, Genius announced they would acquire the Canadian-based Wow Unlimited Media for $53 Million, allowing Genius to expand to the country. The transaction will be completed in Q1 2022, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition was completed on April 7 of that year.

Mission

our mission to include more than hip-hop, and more than just lyrics

Vision

We envision a future of creating, distributing and delivering content for children of all ages which helps develop in them a lifelong love of learning.

Key Team

Mr. Lloyd Mintz (Sr. VP & Head of Worldwide Consumer Products)

Mr. David Neuman (Chief Creative Officer of Kartoon Channel)

Mr. Jon Ollwerther (Exec. VP of Bus. Devel. & Pres of Kartoon Channel)

Ms. Cindy Kelly (Head of Advter. Sales & Co-Chief Revenue Officer of Kartoon Channel)

Ms. Kerry Phelan (Chief Brand Officer)

Mr. Paul Robinson (Pres of Kartoon Channel Worldwide)

Mr. Todd Steinman (Co-Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer of Kartoon Channel)

Recognition and Awards

Genius Brands International has won numerous awards for its development, production, multimedia and marketing initiatives, including Kidscreen awards, Cynopsis Kids Imagination Awards, Parent’s Choice Awards, and MarCom Awards, among others.