China comic platform Kuaikan raises $240m

The company - which positions itself as a channel for domestic comic works, rather than for imported intellectual property - is not only a content provider but also an online community for young people. It switched from free-to-access to paid-access two years ago, and now 90% of the content is behind a paywall.

Kuaikan claims a market share of more than 50%, with over 340 million users, including 50 million monthly active users. People born after 2000 represent over 90% of the user base. The company, which is already profitable, has seen average annual revenue growth in excess of 50% in recent years.

Part of the proceeds from the latest round will finance a commitment to invest RMB1 billion ($154 million) in the next three years to support original comic creation. A further RMB1 billion will go towards co-productions of comic-based TV dramas.

Kuaikan was founded by Chinese comic artist Anni Chen in 2014. She began posting her drawings on microblogging site Weibo in 2011, detailing her life as a university undergraduate. Her story resonated with young people, and once Chen had built up a critical mass of followers, she launched Kuaikan as a platform for other comic artists to publish original work.

The platform subsequently attracted attention from Sequoia Capital China, which invested $3 million in Series A round in April 2015. It re-upped in a RMB100 million Series B later the same year, joined by Beijing Kunlun Tech, a Shenzhen-listed game developer.

Kuaikan closed its RMB250 million Series C and $177 million Series D rounds in 2017, led by Tiantu and Coatue, respectively. Two years later, Tencent invested $125 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Consumer
• Media
• China
• Tiantu Capital
• Tencent
• Coatue Management
• Growth capital
• TMT