Watching firsthand the state of production finance sparked a drive in Shawn Hamilton to make improvements.

Business Insider reports that the former Amazon production accountant realized how much time production companies were wasting, so he created Conduiit. The fintech startup works to get entertainment companies’ production finance up to speed and to save money by centralizing its production finance operations. 

Co-founded with former Netflix product manager Jason Thurman — who also previously worked for Disney and Max (formerly known as HBO Max) — the duo has put things into motion to disrupt the entertainment industry.

Following its launch, Conduiit has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding, according to Business Insider. The round was co-led by Fiat Ventures and Aperture Venture Capital. What’s more, Collide Capital and Japanese angel investor Hiro Mizushima also invested.

“There are two Black founders in a world that doesn’t have a lot of them,” Fiat Ventures General Partner Drew Glover said. “At Fiat, we’re also big believers that founders from all backgrounds have the ability to come in and build all kinds of companies. So we were really proud to be able to find a really incredible company with dogged founders.”

Although the time for Hamilton and Thurman to raise funding came when the Hollywood strikes were blazing, they were still able to prevail.

“It was a tough time to raise money,” Hamilton recalled. “But ultimately we were successful. We helped our VC partners understand the problem. My belief is that the strikes highlight the problems we’re solving, so they support our thesis. It’s very hard to change things when they’re going well.”

According to the outlet, Conduiit has managed $70 million in transactions for 200 clients. Now, with the new funding, the co-founders aim to use it to “integrate more functions into Conduiit’s platform like payments and the ability to apply for state tax incentives.”

As of this writing, the startup’s platform features compliance, management, accounting, and payment tools, which are said to save production companies 30 hours per week on labor.

Additionally, in the near future, Conduiit plans for expansion into the production financing of video games.