Black Ex-Amazon And Netflix Employees Raise $1M To Transform Production Finance For Film And TV

Black-owned fintech startup Conduiit has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to save entertainment companies time and money by centralizing their production finance operations.

Disrupting the production finance space

Conduiit is the brainchild of former Amazon and Netflix employees Shawn Hamilton, CEO, and Jason Thurman.

The New York and New Jersey-based tech company provides users with digital workflows, SaaS, and DaaS solutions.

It also offers budgeting, scheduling, cost tracking, and cash flow management guidance at project and corporate levels.

Hamilton worked as a production accountant at Amazon from 2015 to 2017 when he had the “light bulb moment,” leading to the idea for Conduiit.

According to Business Insider, the former Amazon production accountant realized how much time production companies wasted.

“The production finance space was very behind,” Hamilton told Business Insider. “I thought something needed to be done.”

Charging on a SaaS model, Conduiit lets production companies access all their compliance, management, accounting, and payment tools from a single platform.

Hamilton said a company could save 30 hours per week on labor using the platform.

So far, it has overseen $70 million in transactions for 200 clients, including Jigsaw Productions, Laylow Productions, and Partially Important Productions.

In one year alone, it has served 200 customers and run 30 projects with Amazon, Discovery, Netflix, and HBO.

$1M In Pre-Seed Funding

Conduiit has now raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in a round co-led by Fiat Ventures and Aperture Venture Capital.

Additional participation came from Collide Capital and Japanese angel investor and actor Hiro Mizushima.

The new funding is planned to integrate more functions like Conduiit’s platform, like payments and the ability to apply for state tax incentives.

Conduiit also wants to expand the platform beyond movie and TV projects to video games, noting similarities in the production process.

“It was a tough time to raise money. But ultimately, we were successful,” Hamilton said.

“We helped our VC partners understand the problem. My belief is that the strikes highlight the problems we’re solving, so they support our thesis.”