Make people understand
what you've built.
We make 2D explainer animations for funded startups, particularly those in complex, technical, or emerging sectors where the idea is genuinely hard to convey in a pitch deck, a grant application, or a sales conversation.
Before the animation, I couldn't get investors to understand what StarLiX does no matter how I explained it. After it, everyone got it straight away. I was genuinely blown away.
You've built something brilliant.
Most people can't picture it yet.
Startups in complex sectors (deep tech, health, climate, B2B SaaS) face the same problem: the people they need to convince can't see what the founders can see. Whether that's an investor, a grant assessor, a procurement team, or a potential customer, they're smart, but they're not in your head.
A good explainer animation bridges that gap. It doesn't oversimplify, it takes someone from "I don't get it" to "I see why this matters" in under three minutes. That's what we build.
Fundraising & investor decks
An animation in your data room that explains the product clearly — for VCs and angels who see hundreds of decks a week.
Grant applications (Innovate UK, UKRI)
Many grant schemes accept supporting video. An animation explaining your technology to non-specialist assessors can strengthen an application significantly.
Customer & sales conversations
Something your team can send after a call that explains the product better than a brochure — for prospects, procurement teams, and enterprise buyers who need to convince a board.
Website & top-of-funnel conversion
Turn your homepage into something that converts. An explainer reduces bounce, increases time on site, and turns visitors into leads.
We turn founder knowledge
into audience understanding.
Most founders know too much about their product to explain it simply. Our job is to sit between you and your audience. Whether that's an investor, a grant panel, a customer, or a partner, we learn what you know, then translate it into something a non-expert can grasp and remember.
We learn the technology
We read your deck, your one-pager, your website. We ask the questions a smart investor would ask, and build the story from there.
We cut to what matters
Explainers fail when they try to say everything. We work out what your audience needs to understand first, and build around that.
Startup-speed delivery
Most projects are delivered in three to five weeks. If you have a funding deadline, tell us, we'll work backwards from it.
Founder-friendly pricing
Transparent, fixed, and calibrated for startups, not enterprise marketing budgets. You'll know the price before we start.
Built to update
Startups pivot. We deliver structured animations so they can be updated when your product or positioning changes.
10 years of complex sectors
Deep tech, health, climate, fintech, B2B software. The more complicated the product, the more a well-made explainer delivers.
From your head
to their screen.
We run a tight process that works at startup speed. Most clients are surprised how much of the heavy lifting we do, particularly at script stage, where the real work happens.
Discovery session
45 minutes on a call. We learn what you do, who needs to understand it, and what you need them to do next — whether that's invest, approve, or buy.
Script & narrative
We write the script. You review and approve. This is where the real work happens — getting the story right before we draw a single frame.
Visual style & animation
We show you the visual direction before we animate everything. Once approved, we build the full film and send a review cut for final sign-off.
Delivery
MP4 for your website, a shorter cut for social, versions for pitch decks, data rooms, and grant submissions. Files are yours completely.
Some of our work for
funded startups.
Explaining a three-sided marketplace where consumers, website owners, and brands all needed to understand what was in it for them
BabyPerks had built something genuinely clever: a platform that connects new and expectant parents with relevant brand offers, while simultaneously helping website owners turn traffic into sign-ups and giving brands a zero-spam, GDPR-compliant way to reach a highly targeted audience. Three different audiences, all needing to understand what was in it for them.
The challenge was that explaining a three-sided marketplace is structurally hard. Lead with the brand proposition and you lose the consumer. Lead with the consumer benefits and website owners don't know where they fit. We structured the narrative in two acts: first establishing the problem each party faces, then showing how BabyPerks solves it for all three simultaneously.
Explaining a cross-border compliance and payments platform to investors and banking partners
StarLiX had built something genuinely innovative: a compliance and tokenised payments platform that solves a real and costly problem for payment institutions operating across borders. The product involves regulatory frameworks, correspondent banking, encrypted audit trails, and tokenised payments infrastructure. Explaining any one of those clearly to a non-specialist is hard. Explaining how they work together in under three minutes is harder.
We built a character-led narrative that grounded the technology in a relatable human problem first: a payment institution owner facing compliance costs, audit risk, and potential bank account closures. Then we introduced StarLiX as the solution. By the time the platform's features were explained, the viewer already understood why they mattered.
Explaining the UK's first digital-only mobile service in thirty seconds, without a single word of voiceover
Ymobile had created something genuinely new: a mobile network you download as an app, with no SIM card, no packaging, no plastic. The product was easy to use but hard to explain, because most people had no frame of reference for it. The brief was to make them understand it in thirty seconds without any spoken words.
We built a purely visual story around two original characters we designed from scratch, Sheep and Yak. Sheep goes through the whole physical SIM ritual: waiting for delivery, ripping open packaging, fiddling with the pokey tool, getting increasingly frustrated. Yak sits next to them, calmly taps an app, and is done instantly. The contrast says everything. Five words of on-screen text sealed it: No packaging. No plastic. Just download. The characters became central to their launch campaign identity.
In their
own words.
Our product isn't straightforward to explain. It involves multiple parties, data compliance, and a value exchange that takes some thinking to get right. We didn't have to do that thinking for Beluga. They came back with a structure that made sense of the whole thing before we'd even thought to suggest it. That's the bit that's hard to find in an animation studio.
Before the animation, I couldn't get investors to understand what StarLiX does no matter how I explained it. After it, everyone got it straight away. I was genuinely blown away.
We asked for an explainer. We also got two characters that became part of our launch campaign identity. The animation did its job and then kept going. It became how people recognised us. We didn't plan for that. It just happened because the creative was genuinely good rather than just functional.
What people
usually ask.
How much does a startup explainer cost?
Most explainers for startups sit between £2,500 and £6,000 for a one-to-three minute video. Fixed quote after a discovery call, you'll know exactly what you're paying before anything starts.
How quickly can you deliver?
Three to five weeks from kick-off to delivery is typical. If you have a fundraising deadline, a grant submission, or a customer meeting, tell us, we'll plan to hit it.
Can it be used for customers as well as investors?
Yes, and often the same animation serves both. We build around the core explanation of what you do and why it matters, which tends to work across investor meetings, sales conversations, grant applications, and your website simultaneously.
What if our product or positioning changes?
It happens. We deliver source files and structure animations so they can be updated without starting from scratch. We offer refresh projects at a reduced rate for returning clients.
Can I use the animation in grant applications?
Yes, and we'd encourage it where the scheme allows. Innovate UK and other UK programmes increasingly accept or invite supporting video. We can produce a version formatted specifically for a grant application if needed.
Do you work with pre-revenue startups?
Yes. Many of our clients are pre-revenue and need animation precisely because they're still building the product and need to show investors, customers, or grant panels what it will do.
Tell us what you've built.
We'll make people get it.
Tell us who needs to understand what you do: investors, customers, grant panels, or all three. We'll tell you whether animation is the right tool and what it would cost.
Book a discovery callOr email hello@belugaanimation.com directly