London-based Moonbug Entertainment is expanding its AVOD portfolio with the acquisition of Little Angel, a rapidly growing kids nursery rhyme YouTube network.

This is Moonbug’s first acquisition since it was purchased by indie startup Candle Media last November, and it plans to invest in new Little Angel content and broaden the brand’s global distribution footprint.

Little Angel was launched in 2015 by Canadian web and video publisher Valnet, and now features a whole network of edutainment-focused YouTube channels (including spinoff channel Little World) that collectively have nearly 90 million subscribers worldwide.

Aimed at preschoolers and available in 19 languages, the core Little Angel channel offers more than 400 original songs and 500-plus 3D-animated episodes. Its reimagined classic nursery rhymes and original stories are designed to teach things like letters, numbers, good manners and healthy habits. The network’s global viewership has doubled since 2019 and now generates 1.5 billion monthly views.

Moonbug has yet to say whether Valnet will continue to operate the Little Angel business now that it has been acquired.

Its own YouTube channels, which include Little Baby Bum, My Magic Pet Morphle and Supa Strikas, are seeing more than nine billion monthly views on average globally, with a total subscriber count of north of 440 million.