29th Juy, 2025
On July 19, 2025, something remarkable happened. At the first birthday celebration of Grammy-winning artist Ashanti and Nelly’s son, Kareem Kenkaide “KK” Haynes, the spotlight wasn’t on just any animation, it was on Kunda & Friends, a children’s universe born in Kampala, built for the world.
Life-size characters welcomed guests.
A custom animation of Ashanti, Nelly, and their son was unveiled.
And the show — a favorite on Ashanti’s tour bus — played for family and friends.
At the heart of this milestone was Kunda Kids, one of ODBA’s portfolio companies and the only venture in this year’s Africa’s Business Heroes Top 50 cohort focused on storytelling for children across books, animation, and audio.
“These are the moments that remind me why we built Kunda Kids, to create joyful, culturally rich stories that families can see themselves in and fall in love with. From living rooms to tour buses.”
— Louisa Kiwana Olafuyi, Co-Founder, Kunda Kids
This is Cultural Infrastructure in Motion
Founded by Louisa and Oladele Olafuyi, Kunda Kids is building more than content. They’re shaping how African identity shows up and grows up in a global media landscape.
“We’re not just animating characters. We’re animating culture. We’re building a storytelling brand that travels across borders but stays rooted in where we come from.”
— Oladele Olafuyi, Co-Founder, Kunda Kids
In a world where children’s media is often Western-centric, Kunda & Friends offers something rare: animated storytelling grounded in African heritage, accessible to families everywhere. With support from Creatures Animation, their work has reached homes, schools, and now, global platforms.
“I just feel like those moments are sacred to me… and Kunda & Friends helped us tell that story in such a beautiful, meaningful way. KK loved it — we all did.”
— Ashanti, Grammy-winning artist & mother
Why We Invested
For ODBA, this isn’t about celebrity moments. It’s about thesis validation.
We invest in founders building cultural infrastructure, scalable platforms that shape identity, reframe narrative, and export Africa’s creative power to the world. Kunda Kids embodies that vision.
“We backed Louisa and Dele because they weren’t chasing trends, they were building legacy. This moment wasn’t manufactured. It was earned. And it’s only the beginning.”
— Gbite Oduneye, Managing Partner, ODBA
What’s Next
With recognition from Africa’s Business Heroes (Top 50 out of 32,000+ applications), Kunda Kids is scaling its animation slate, expanding distribution, and deepening its IP footprint across publishing, broadcast, and interactive formats.
This is what global storytelling looks like — joyful, strategic, and unapologetically rooted.
Congratulations to Louisa, Oladele, the entire Kunda Kids team, and to Creatures Animation for bringing this vision to life.
ODBA champion visionary founders who leverage technology to craft extraordinary success stories. Our portfolio boasts investments in 30 technology companies spanning 10 countries, generating more than 1,800 direct jobs and serving a vast community of over eight million users and customers. We take immense pride in the profound impact our portfolio companies have already achieved across the continent and eagerly anticipate future contributions to the transformative landscape of Africa.