Acclaimed Investors Include Co-Founders of Twitch, Rotten Tomatoes, Crunchyroll, Kabam, 9GAG, Junglee Games, and More
DEVI - an Indian Superhero
BANGALORE, India, March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TOONSUTRA, the India-focused mobile webtoon startup that has been incubating in stealth mode, announced it closed an oversubscribed pre-seed round for US$1.1 million. The new startup was incubated at leading character entertainment company Graphic India and was founded by media entrepreneur Sharad Devarajan.
TOONSUTRA is building India's first "Webtoons meets Web3" platform with a mission to become India's new storytelling home for disruptive creators across the country to experiment, innovate and create engaging webtoon comic stories and digital collectibles for India's 650 million+ mobile youth market.
The funds came from an acclaimed group of global investors and entrepreneurs including, Patrick Lee, Co-Founder, Rotten Tomatoes; Kevin Lin, Co-Founder, Twitch; Kun Gao, Co-Founder, Crunchyroll; Jeremy Liew, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners; Holly Lui, Co-Founder, Kabam; Ray Chan, Co-Founder, 9GAG; Rishad Tobaccowala, Former Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Group; Michael Maher, Founder, Start Media; Vishal Anand, Former Chief Product Officer, Dailyhunt; Benjamin Grubbs, Co-Founder, CreatorPlus; George Nolfi, filmmaker; Sandeep Kumar Sood, Co-Founder, Junglee Games; and others.
In addition to some of the biggest comic book libraries from around the world, the platform will showcase and promote emerging rising star creators across India and give them a home to tell their stories. The TOONSUTRA app will feature a wide range of content for audiences across superhero, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, Bollywood, mythology, action, and more.
"TOONSUTRA will become India's new storytelling home for disruptive creators across the country to experiment, innovate and create powerful new webtoon comic stories and web3 collectibles and experiences," TOONSUTRA founder Sharad Devarajan commented. "Webtoon platforms have become an explosive phenomenon across Asia, with top webtoon apps cumulatively reaching over 70 million monthly users and over a 100 billion views a year. For the first time, we want to make a webtoon app dedicated for Indians to spark a mobile comic and Web3 collectible revolution."
The new startup was incubated at Graphic India, the country's highest-quality comic book producer and the creators of hit animated shows like Baahubali: The Lost Legends, Chakra The Invincible, and The Legend of Hanuman. Graphic India's short-form-video-formatted Audio Comics and Motion Comics have already broken over 200 million cumulative views across third-party platforms in India, proving the growing demand for digital comics in the market.