Led · Series A · Aug 2020

Radish is a serialized-fiction mobile app that provides early access to stories from top writers. Readers can access thousands of serials across genres and connect directly with their favorite storytellers in live community chat rooms. Authors can publish original stories, revive backlist titles for a mobile readership, and pre-release upcoming books. The company is led by CEO and founder Seung Yoon ‘SY’ Lee and is based in New York and Seoul, South Korea. In April 2020 Radish raised $63.2M in a Series A funding round. It intends to use the funds to expand in the horror, mystery and thriller genres. Radish offers mobile apps that deliver serialized, bite-sized fiction installments and monetizes via an in-app coin system. Readers get initial chapters free and pay with coins (coins can cost about $0.12 each; price varies) to unlock early access, with a 50/50 revenue split between Radish and authors. The product emerged from a year-long beta with more than 700 writers on the platform and a top author reportedly earning $13,000 per month. Radish does not claim authors' intellectual property and is recruiting both self-published and traditionally published writers while experimenting with other storytelling formats. The company is positioning serialization on mobile as analogous to TV cliffhangers and is officially launching its apps to scale that model. Investors from the tech, entertainment, and publishing worlds—including author Amy Tan—are backing the effort.