Sydney-based native-AI story design and management platform Othelia Technologies is expanding to the US, with former CEO of Bento Box Entertainment Scott Greenberg boarding the company as executive chairman.
Greenberg joins the company as both a strategic investor and advisor, and will oversee corporate strategy and industry partnerships.
The Los Angeles headquarters will be run by Alexandra Hooven, who has been appointed chief growth officer, responsible for Othelia’s product development and rollout to the creative community in the US and globally.
Hooven previously served as director of product strategy at BCL, where she worked with Greenberg. There, she led the development of Tubi’s Stubios platform and oversaw product strategy for Fox’s Verify Tool, a blockchain protocol for AI usage rights and content authentication.
Othelia was co-founded by Kate Armstrong-Smith, CEO, and Joe Couch, chief technology officer, in 2019, with a focus on developing intelligent technology helps human storytelling in terms of developing, refining and scaling narratives.
Each has background in the arts and screen industry, with Armstrong a producer and dramaturg and Couch a VR engineer and theatre director.
Early backers of Othelia include lead investor ALIAVIA Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm, and angel investors such as producer Deanne Weir, former Sydney Film Festival chair and deputy chair of Screen Australia, and Clarence Capital Partners.
The company’s flagship tool, Storykeeper, will launch in beta in the Australian spring/US autumn. Its proprietary semantic model treats narrative text as structured data – bringing story elements such as plot, characters, themes, timelines and world rules into one platform. As stories grow in size and complexity, Storykeeper is designed to track narrative connections, contradictions and revisions across evolving drafts.
All creative data housed on the platform is fully owned and controlled by the user, with Othelia promising that no data is repurposed to train generative models.
Over the last year, Storykeeper has been in alpha with a major studios and global streamers that have acted as collaborative design partners. The hope is to grow Othelia into “a foundational platform” with additional tools that will further facilitate the management of creative data through the full production lifecycle.
This marks the second time Greenberg, who will also be named a co-founder in the company along with Hooven, has looked to partner with creatives Down Under, having spearheaded Bento Box’s international expansion by teaming with Melbourne’s Princess Pictures to launch Princess Bento Studio in 2021.
“Throughout my career, I’ve seen first-hand how the right systems and technology can transform efficient production without compromising creativity,” said Greenberg in a statement.
“In Othelia, Kate and Joe have built a powerful platform that complements the human creativity, intelligence and emotion required for storytelling and worldbuilding. Othelia gives creatives and studios the infrastructure to nurture, scale and protect the asset that audiences care about most – stories; and I’m looking forward to working with them and Alex as we introduce Othelia as an invaluable partner to the industry.”
Armstrong-Smith and Couch added: “Everyone wants to create amazing stories, but creative teams still face countless narrative decisions and challenges from idea to distribution, despite increasing digitalisation of production workflows. We’re excited about how Storykeeper can help the industry continue to astound audiences with their vision. With Scott’s sharp business acumen and Alex’s expertise, we’re thrilled about Othelia’s future as technology and entertainment further converge, spurring even more collaboration and creativity.”
Users can apply for early access to Storykeeper’s beta at Othelia.co.