Goldfinch Holdings, the London-based film financier, and Luxembourg’s newly established Digital Genesis Fund are joint financing a fund worth €17.8 million to back next-gen media ventures that leverage tokenisation, AI, the metaverse, and TMT infrastructure.
The fund will match Digital Genesis’s initial €17.8 million investment deal-by-deal with Goldfinch International—creating a new co-investment framework for future-facing studios.
Announced on the sidelines of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and to be officially unveiled at the TechCannes Industry event, the partnership between Goldfinch International and Digital Genesis SICAV RAIF Fund aims to develop a decentralised entertainment ecosystem powered by blockchain technology.
Hendrik Hey, Managing Director & Co-founder of the Digital Genesis Fund says, “This must be what it felt like when the first Hollywood pioneers built their studios and set a new era of storytelling in motion. Today, we find ourselves at a similar turning point — but this time, the canvas is infinite: a three-dimensional, transparent, and interactive metaverse. Visual media is no longer locked inside a screen — it breathes, it responds, it surrounds us. We are no longer just creating content; we are building worlds. And in these worlds, everyone becomes part of the story.”
Goldfinch Holdings was founded in 2013 and has built a reputation as a reliable backer of film and television ventures. Digital Genesis, although a newcomer, is preparing for a public listing and is supported by leaders in both media and blockchain. Together, they aim to shape the infrastructure of future storytelling through this new fund.
Goldfinch International, the global investment arm of Goldfinch Holdings, will match the initial fund amount under the leadership of Justin Deimen, Managing Partner of Goldfinch International, and Phil McKenzie, Chief Operating Officer of Goldfinch Holdings.
The venture’s first move is the acquisition of Lumiere, a tokenised crowdfunding platform aiming to redefine content financing. Lumiere, led by Patrice Poujol, enters the fold as a key strategic asset. The platform is backed by players such as Animoca Brands, Brinc, Rolling Stone and RS Productions, providing the new ecosystem with an immediate foundation for growth and experimentation in blockchain-based content models.
Beyond Lumiere, the partners have already mapped out a slate of projects including The Squad — a Web3-native production studio that follows the emerging Film3 business model — and MILC (Media Industry Licensing Content), a metaverse-based production and content licensing hub.
MILC, created by Hendrik Hey, Founder of European media group Welt der Wunder, is expanding into a comprehensive B2B and B2C production environment offering tools for financing, rights management, branded content and digital distribution.
As part of their international strategy, the team will activate a global calendar of partnerships and co-investments, starting with the Indonesia Creative Investment Forum later this year. Hosted by Goldfinch Indonesia in collaboration with Synco, Goshen Prime, and Indonesia’s Creative Ministry, the forum will showcase tech-driven products for Lumiere and The Squad to a global audience of investors and public bodies.
To support their ambitions, the collaboration has secured infrastructure partnerships including a high-fidelity pixel streaming backbone from ARCWARE in Germany. Furthermore, the ecosystem will incorporate AI-powered production pipelines and intelligent licensing systems, aiming to streamline the production lifecycle from ideation to distribution.
The long-term strategy focuses on assembling a robust flow of tokenised IPs, ready to offer co-production and financing opportunities to studios and investors worldwide.
With an emphasis on innovation and decentralisation, the new fund positions itself at the convergence of media, finance and technology.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/05/british-film-financier-goldfinch-and-digital-genesis-launch-e17-8-million-entertainment-fund/
