After spending the past year trialling an alpha version of its AI-driven narrative management tool Storykeeper with major studios and global streamers, Sydney-founded Othelia Technologies has attracted US investment and relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles as it prepares for a beta launch targeting creatives worldwide.
The company was initially founded in 2019 by creative producer Kate Armstrong-Smith alongside creative development advisor and former global management consultant Joe Couch, having worked together at script development production company The Working Group.
Armstrong-Smith and Couch, Othelia's CEO and CTO respectively, identified a need among creators and producers for an intelligent digital framework that bridges creative vision and human storytelling.
What they've created is a proprietary semantic model that treats narrative text as structured data, bringing key story elements such as plot, characters, themes, timelines and world rules into one secure, interconnected platform.
As stories grow in size and complexity, Storykeeper tracks all narrative connections, contradictions and cascading revisions across evolving drafts, enabling users with valuable efficiency, real-time control and clear visibility into the shape and scope of their intellectual property.
The company emphasises that all creative data housed on Othelia is fully owned and controlled by the user, with no data ever repurposed to train generative models.
As they work towards a beta rollout this northern hemisphere autumn, the pair have brought on two new co-founders in Emmy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur Scott Greenberg, who founded Bento Box Entertainment which was acquired by Fox in 2019, and Alexandra Hooven, who moved across from leading product strategy for emerging technologies at Fox.
Greenberg and Hooven will be the company's executive chairman and chief growth officer respectively.
Othelia received early financial backing from lead investor ALIAVIA Ventures and a syndicate of angel investors including Clarence Capital Partners and former Sydney Film Festival chair Deanne Weir. New co-founder Scott Greenberg has also made a strategic investment in Othelia.
California-based ALIAVIA was already invested in the startup when in 2023 it announced a $13.5 million raise to solely support female-founded startups in Australia, with backing from the Forrest family’s private investment vehicle Tattarang and Robyn and Victoria Denholm's Wollemi Capital Group.
Following its US expansion, the startup will retain its Sydney-based operations, while from the LA office Hooven will oversee Othelia's product development and rollout to content creators and studio teams within film, television, social and gaming in the US and globally.
Greenberg will oversee corporate strategy and industry partnerships as Othelia expands its platform as a foundational layer for story-driven IP management.
"Throughout my career, I've seen first-hand how the right systems and technology can transform efficient production without compromising creativity," says Greenberg.
"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."
In a joint statement, the Australia-based co-founders say 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," Armstrong-Smith and Couch state.
"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."
"Everyone today is chasing faster creative output – generate a pitch, a scene, a visual. But speed without structure just creates more noise," adds Hooven. "The result is a wave of disparate content, with little staying power. What separates enduring stories isn't just craft – it's cohesion, intentionality and the ability to evolve without losing meaning. That's what we're building toward with Othelia and Storykeeper."
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