Tapastic is run by Tapas Media, a US-based company headquartered in Silicon Valley. It provides an online portal for American webcomics and aims to be the comic version of YouTube.
Daum Communications, owner of one of South Korea’s largest Internet portal sites and a major operator of South Korean webcomic sites, led the funding.
Chang Kim, chief executive of Tapastic said, “This investment by Daum Communications…is a validation of our mission to help create the future of visual storytelling in the U.S. market.
“As YouTube videos became a new format of online communication by breaking down the old barriers between content creators and the audience, we feel Tapastic’s webcomics will create the same type of new media experience for readers and fans of comics and graphic novels. We are honored to receive a vote of confidence from Daum Communications, Inc. in the form of venture financing to help us take our company to the next level of growth.”
Previous investment in Tapas Media comes to $1.4m through two seed rounds. Investors include SK planet, 500 Startups, Strong Ventures, Chester Roh and Adam D’Angelo.
Tapastic will use the venture capital investment to hire more developers, significantly enhance its features and continue to grow its online community of webcomics content creators. Tapastic is currently hosting more than 1,200 webcomic creators, more than 1,400 comic series, and more than 24,000 individual comic episodes.