Wonder Studios and the future of AI-native storytelling
Wonder Studios video created for the Lewis Capaldi song ‘Something in the Heavens’ in partnership with Google DeepMind, YouTube & Universal Music Group.
Mercuri is pleased to announce our investment in Wonder Studios. This is part of its $12m seed round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Blackbird and Upside VC. Wonder is building a next-generation storytelling platform: AI-native, creator-led and designed from the ground up to transform how premium content is developed, delivered and monetised.
At its core Wonder offers a radically reimagined production process: adaptive, emotionally intelligent and expressive, underpinned by proprietary ML infrastructure. It gives creative teams and IP owners the ability to explore novel narrative formats, ones that are unconstrained by the limitations of traditional studio pipelines. Unlike the fragmented landscape of GenAI point solutions and plug-in tools, Wonder is architected as a vertically integrated, enterprise-grade platform, with the ambition to be a foundational system for storytelling at scale, from ideation through to execution and global distribution. The company is already deploying this infrastructure with leading artists, brands and rights holders, enabling them to scale creative output and engage audiences in new ways.
This capability also speaks to a major enterprise opportunity: the repurposing of existing content libraries and archives. With demand for legacy content on the rise (with demand for repurposed franchises up by up to 40% in recent years) there is significant latent value in dormant IP. Wonder’s platform enables IP‑owners to revive and re‑imagine archived material, making it discoverable, remixable and commercially viable again. In doing so the company is not only innovating new formats but unlocking revenue upstream of the production line.
This approach sits at the centre of Mercuri’s long-standing thesis in generative media. Since the launch of Fund I in 2018, we’ve backed companies that don’t simply apply AI to media, but rebuild the creative value chain around it, prioritising vertical integration, IP defensibility and human-led expression. As generative AI continues to reshape media economics, the opportunity is staggering: McKinsey estimates GenAI will generate north of $130 billion in value for the media and entertainment sector. But this value will not be evenly distributed. It will consolidate around companies like Wonder that build AI-native systems, not AI overlays, companies that unlock new creative processes, not just faster production cycles.
What makes Wonder especially compelling is its dual focus: technological ambition and cultural depth. It is a creative platform that understands the emotional nuance, rhythm and texture of storytelling and is being built in close partnership with a growing ecosystem of artists and collaborators. Rather than displacing human creativity, Wonder ensures it remains central, cultivating a community of creators who can explore, iterate and scale ideas in ways that were previously out of reach.
Much of that is down to the team. Xavier and Justin bring a rare blend of creative instinct, technical fluency and operational experience. They are experienced startup scalers, deeply native to narrative craft and have shown real clarity in how they interpret the current moment and where it's heading. Their ability to design for both creative and commercial stakeholders, while building with product and community in parallel, sets Wonder apart.
We’re proud to partner with Wonder at this inflection point. It is precisely the kind of company we seek at Mercuri: verticalised, technically ambitious, culturally intelligent and architected to define the future of media.(1) https://www.parrotanalytics.com/academy/how-to-create-and-frame-a-franchise(2) https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/beyond-the-hype-capturing-the-potential-of-ai-and-gen-ai-in-tmt