Graphicly builds tools to publish and distribute graphically rich content, initially focused on comic books and now expanded to all kinds of visual publications. Its product set includes eBook publishing features and an embeddable YouTube-like widget for book trailers that lets publishers reach readers across platforms. About 10% of its publishers are using the widget, which is generating more than 1 million page views a month. The company says it has served over 10,000 publishers, including Scholastic, Warner Brothers, University of Texas Press, Marvel, Random House, Peanuts and Dark Horse. Management reports revenue "in the millions" and that the business is on pace to double revenue year-over-year while having doubled its number of publishers in under six months. Graphicly recently installed David Fox as CEO (he had been acting CEO for around three months) while co-founder Micah Baldwin stepped back into a product role. Graphicly began as a marketplace for digital comics and has since shifted to offering a suite of tools that help publishers distribute content to iOS, Android, Kindle and other platforms. Last year the company launched the new distribution tools that have driven significant growth and enabled deals such as distributing more than 60 Peanuts titles. CEO Micah Baldwin says the business is generating millions of dollars in annual revenue and growing 1,500% year‑over‑year. The company plans to add more interactivity and app‑like capabilities to e‑books created on its platform as a lower‑cost alternative to building native apps. That strategy is intended both to expand functionality for existing customers and to open new markets, including education. Graphicly aims to reach profitability by mid‑2013 and may pursue a larger Series B once profitable. Graphic.ly is a digital comics platform that offers online distribution and reader applications for comics and related interactive content. The company reported more than 600,000 application downloads in five months and has relationships with over 150 publishers and creators, including Marvel and Archie Comics. Graphic.ly intends to evolve beyond a simple digital comic store by combining artwork and storylines with interactivity and social features that the web can provide. The team emerged from the 2009 TechStars Boulder class when it was known as Take Comics and plans to expand partnerships and potentially acquire properties such as iFanboy to grow its reach. Financially, the startup raised an initial $1.2M round the prior year and is using new funding to support its 2011 expansion. Graphic.ly builds a digital comic reader, storefront, and social activity feed that layers commentary and discovery onto comic content. The company launched an AIR desktop app out of beta and plans native apps for iPad, iPhone, Android, and Windows 7, followed by a native web app. Its AIR app surfaces an activity feed showing what friends are reading and their comments to aid discovery. Readers can click individual panels to enlarge them, attach comment “circles” to parts of images, and share pages to Facebook. The catalogue contains about 70 comics from independent publishers today, and the team hopes to add Marvel in the future. Graphic.ly began as TechStars startup Take Comics, has since renamed itself, raised $1.2 million, and added Micah Baldwin as CEO.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Sep 2013