Colin Kaepernick, the civil rights activist and former NFL quarterback, has launched Lumi, an AI platform set to democratize storytelling.

Lumi empowers creators with the tools to independently create, publish, and merchandise their stories digitally and physically.

The media company has raised $4M in venture capital funding from a seed round led by Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Kapor Capital and Impellent Ventures also contributed to the round. 

Prominent angel investors who participated in the round include Mariam Naficy (founder of Minted), David Sze, Chamillionaire, and tech execs from Meta, Anthropic, ContextualAI, Sleeper, Pave, and more.

Stories influence our reality and help us better understand our world. Nonetheless, stories don’t exist without creators. A few large corporations currently dominate the narrative landscape, limiting the stories’ diversity. 

Lumi wants to open the funnel by enabling anyone to access storytelling superpowers, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable world. The company will provide tools to help creators finish their products and distribute and merchandise those stories.

The Idea For Lumi

The idea for Lumi came from challenges Colin Kaepernick, Founder & CEO of Lumi, faced while building his media company, Ra Vision Media, and his publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing. 

They included long production timelines, high costs, and creators not owning the work they create. These challenges generate significant friction for creators, preventing many projects from getting off the ground.

When ChatGPT, Dall-E, and other AI models broke through to the mainstream a couple of years ago, Kaepernick told The Times that he started playing with the tools, even trying to use them to create a children’s book.

“Lumi addresses an unnecessary dependency on gatekeepers that slows creators down,” says Kaepernick. “This allows creators to return to what they ultimately want to do: create. The platform empowers creators to work freely and independently, deciding when and how they want to collaborate with others. This independence is crucial for fostering a vibrant and diverse creative ecosystem.”

How Does Lumi Work?

Lumi leverages advanced AI technology to enhance the creative process and ensure diverse and authentic stories shape our future. Lumi will help independent creators forge hybrid written-illustrated stories, like comics, graphic novels, and manga. 

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According to Kaepernick, the platform is built on top of foundational models. (Foundational models are large, multi-purpose machine learning models like Chat-GPT.) 

Users will interact with a chatbot to create a character, flesh out their backstory and traits, and build a narrative. Then, they’ll use an image-generation tool to illustrate the character and their journey. “You can go back and forth with your AI companion and test ideas, ‘I want to change the ending,’ or ‘I want it to be more comedic or dramatic,’” he says. 

Users will then publish and distribute their stories on the Lumi platform, order physical copies, and use AI tools to create and sell merchandise based on their IP. 

Kaepernick hopes that the AI platform will appeal to aspiring creators with gaps in their skill sets—whether that means athletes who have a story and an audience but lack illustrating chops or content creators who are having trouble monetizing their work.

What Investors Are Saying About Lumi

Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded in 2020 by Alexis Ohanian, has been a staunch advocate for tech-forward storytelling. “The timing for this venture is perfect, as recent technological advancements have made it possible to realize Lumi’s vision,” said Cristina Apple Georgoulakis, Partner at Seven Seven Six. 

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“Colin and the Lumi team have gathered valuable insights from creators about their concerns and needs, including the desire for control over their work and financial sustainability. We believe Lumi is the perfect solution to a problem that has existed for decades.”

The company plans to use the new $4 million funding to focus its energy on comic book and graphic novel creators first, a market that requires multiple creative skill sets. The Beta version is now available, allowing creators to sign up and begin exploring the platform’s capabilities. 

Image Credit: Lumi