Canada-based online publishing platform Wattpad received $51m in funding yesterday from investors including internet company Tencent and Kickstart Ventures, the corporate venturing unit run by telecommunications firm Globe Telecom.
The round, which valued Wattpad at $398m post-money according to Pitchbook, also featured investment holding company Peterson Group, the state-owned Business Development Bank of Canada and merchant bank Raine.
Wattpad has built an online platform where writers can publish and share stories. The platform, which features a personalised recommendations system, has built a user base of about 65 million and currently stores more than 300,000 stories.
Proceeds from the round will support recruitment and the development of Wattpad’s machine learning and interactive storytelling technology. It intends to move further into adjacent mediums such as television, film and digital media where users’ content can be adapted.
Wattpad has now raised almost $118m altogether. An October 2017 report in Canadian daily Globe and Mail stated that Tencent was set to invest $40m in the company as part of a round sized at about $50m, but Wattpad has not confirmed details of Tencent’s stake size.
Tencent president Martin Lau said: “Wattpad has built a creative community for storytellers and story lovers. The company is providing opportunities to new and established writers, transforming how entertainment is discovered and produced.”
Union Square Ventures, W Media Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Omers Ventures and various angel investors provided $20.8m for Wattpad across two rounds in 2011 and 2012.
The company subsequently raised $46m in a 2014 series C round led by Omers Ventures and backed by Raine’s venture capital arm, Raine Ventures, as well as August Capital and Northleaf Capital Partners.