IP platform company COMISMA (ComicSmart, Inc.) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank to establish a new anime production fund. While COMISMA did not disclose the fund’s size, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported it is targeting an operating scale of 10 billion yen (about US$63.5 million) by the end of fiscal year 2027.
The fund is designed to bring fresh money into anime production by offering investment opportunities to companies that have previously found it difficult to enter the anime business. COMISMA and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will jointly establish and operate it.
COMISMA (Credits: Anime News Network)
Why the COMISMA Anime Fund Matters
COMISMA is the parent company of the manga app GANMA! and the anime studio Qzil.la, and the fund plans to combine the company’s ability to acquire popular IPs and production expertise with the bank’s investor network. It is a direct response to a real bottleneck: COMISMA stated that production capacity has not kept pace with strong demand, with many established and major studios booked to capacity years in advance.
Japan’s Big Anime Export Push
The announcement also referenced the Japanese government’s recently announced goal to roughly triple the anime industry’s overseas market in under 10 years, targeting 6 trillion yen (about US$37 billion) by 2033. That ambition has real momentum behind it — the Association of Japanese Animations reported the overseas anime market reached 2.54 trillion yen (about US$16.1 billion) in 2025.
If the fund hits its 10 billion yen target, it could open a meaningful new pipeline for anime projects that struggle to find backing through the traditional production-committee model.
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Source: Anime News Network — read the full story there.
