Digital comic platform GlobalComix is out there getting a round of funding. As reported by AlleyWatch, a recent SEC filing revealed that they’ve raised $5 million, bringing recent investments to $6.5 million out of a total offering of $9.5 million
GlobalComix has been around for a while, as we’ve been reporting. They recently relaunched their desktop portal, with plans for an app launch later this year. With the implosion of Comixology, several players have been moving to continue digital comics sales and original content. GlobalComix has been adding publishers – Archie, Boom and Image recently joined – and they’ve been promoting their user-uploaded portal for small publishers.
GlobalComix was founded by Christopher Carter and Alessio Deiana in 2017, and we reached out to Carter for comment. While he declined to give details of their overall plans he did say that “Our goal is how to achieve the promise of the last three years for the creator ecosystem. Our intent with fundraising it to be able to hire staff support and have the right resources and partnerships in place to deliver on all the promises that we’ve made. We want to put the resources behind the app to spread awareness, drive reader acquisition and get to the consumer side that both creators and we need.”
While Amazon may have absorbed Comixology, based on our conversations with industry folks, there’s a real need for a dedicated platform/app built for the special needs of comics and graphic novels. Digital comics sales in the first era of digital (the late aughts, early teens app race that saw many players enter the game and Comixology walk away the winner) plateaued at a finite proportion of digital sales relative to print.
However, with more and more readers engaging with comics exclusively with webtoons on mobile apps, the audience that’s primed for digital seems larger than ever before – with print not going anywhere. Another app, Omnibus, recently launched, and is also ramping up their game.
$6.5 million is modest by start-up standards, but it’s still a significant investment in the comics space – we’ll be keeping an eye on where GlobalComix goes from here.
