NEW YORK, NY – MAY 21: Colin Kaepernick attends the Gordon Parks Foundation’s Annual Awards Gala and Auction Celebrating Arts and Social Justice at Cipriani 42nd Street on May 21, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Gordon Parks Foundation)
Colin Kaepernick is aiming to break some big barriers with his new startup, and some big-name investors are backing his mission.
The former NFL player and social justice advocate has raised $4 million in funding for Lumi, a subscription-based platform led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, as reported by TIME magazine.
“The vast majority of the world’s stories don’t come to fruition because most people don’t have access to publishers or platforms or the means to get in, or maybe there’s a skillset gap that prevents them from creating,” he told the outlet. “We’re going to see a whole new world of stories and perspectives.”
Lumi is described as a platform that gives storytellers what they need to create, depict, publish and monetize their ideas.
Kaepernick told the outlet that the company was born during his time away from playing in the league, after he founded his own media company, Ra Vision Media, and publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing.
Kapernick told TIME that he decided to launch Lumi after facing major challenges in scaling his company, including “long production times, high costs, and a lack of ownership of the work that creators create.” Following in the footsteps of AI-focused platforms such as OpenAI and ChatGPT, Kapernick was drawn to the field and even dabbled in creating children’s books.
“The vast majority of the stories in the world don’t get made. Most people don’t have access to publishers or platforms or the means to get in. Or maybe there’s a skills gap that creates a barrier to creation,” Kaepernick told TIME. “We’re going to see a whole new world of stories and perspectives.”
