Posted in: Comics | Tagged: digital comics

Graphic.ly Raises New $3 Million Funding Round

Published Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:31:29 -0600

Last updated Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:31:40 -0600

On the digital comics front, 2011 is shaping up in part to be a competition for who can do the best job developing their platform, and in many cases that means doing a good job raising funds for the dev. Graphicly has announced that they've closed on a new $3 million Series A round.

Though these terms are somewhat fluid, Series A is generally considered early round, developmental stage funding. It's worth noting that Graphic.ly closed on another $1.2 million Series A round at this time last year, a couple months before acquiring iFanboy. Boulder is an emerging hotbed of tech startups and Graphic.ly is considered one of the rising stars of that scene.

It should be an interesting developmental race between Graphicly, Comixology, and iVerse this year — and there's sure to be other disruptive companies dropping in as the digital comics market emerges. And of course, as Bleeding Cool reported recently, there can also be other reasons for these companies to acquire significant funding.

That aside, it's clear that 2011 is going to be a year of major change in this area of the market, and we're off to quite a start in January.

GRAPHICLY ANNOUNCES $3 MILLION IN SERIES A FUNDING

DFJ Mercury, Dundee VC, 500 Startups and Individual Angels Invest In Innovative Digital Entertainment Platform

Boulder, CO (January 25, 2011) – Graphicly, one of the leading digital entertainment platforms, announces that it has raised a Series A financing totaling $3 million dollars. The financing was lead by DFJ Mercury, with participation from 500 Startups, Dundee VC, Ludlow Ventures and several angel investors.

With the additional funding, Graphicly plans to create a true digital entertainment experience by providing audio commentaries, video, music and interactive panels. "Our community is looking for more than just an online digital comic store. They know that comics are not just colorful stories for children, but beautiful art, with deep story lines that are best experienced socially and interactively that extend beyond the page. 2011 is the year we bring that into existence." stated CEO Micah Baldwin.

"In 2010, we focused on bringing our community to as many digital comic publishers and creators we could, on every platform in existence, and they responded by downloading more than 600,000 copies of our applications in less than 5 months, and spending more than 20 minutes per visit." said Baldwin. "In 2011, we are taking what we excelled in and combining it with our new funding to bring a greater immersive social experience and new ways to engage with the story and characters."

Graphicly ended 2010 leading the industry with more than 150 publisher and creator relationships, including industry leader Marvel Comics, Archie Comics, Archaia Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Top Cow and BOOM! Studios, and was the only company to release applications for the desktop with Windows 7 and Adobe Air; mobile with iPhone, iPad, Windows 7 Phone and Android; and the web as a featured partner with the Google Chrome Web Store.

About Graphicly
Graphicly is a cutting-edge entertainment digital content delivery system and community platform, providing an immersive social experience and marketplace around digital comics and associated entertainment.

For more information, please visit http://www.graphicly.com

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