Graphic India, a Bangalore-based digital media company, has raised funds totaling 2.8 million dollars to continue its quest to create a comics and animation business that represents India and its culture.
The funding round was provided by The Chernin Group via its Asia-focused CA Media arm, Techcrunch reported.
Graphic India, founded in 2013 and owned by U.S. holding company Liquid Comics, aims to make Indian comics and superheroes popular.
Sharad Devarajan, CEO and co-founder of Liquid Comics and Graphic India, said that the money and time would be spent to continue to create content and develop a digital platform to showcase the company's library of comics, cartoons and films.
The Bangalore-based startup has to date spent its resources and time to build a catalog of content and gain distribution via third parties in the industry. This involves a partnership with Rovio, distribution deals with Cartoon Network in India, 10 film licensing deals and not to mention, actual content from acclaimed cartoonist Stan Lee, Batman writer Grant Morrison, and a host of others.
Devarajan added that the quality they have produced has not been seen in India before and its packaging, execution and delivery would be the best in the world.
Graphic India has an active presence on YouTube but has planned "fully immersive" apps with built-in e-books and video components.
The company has also planned to exploit Facebook's popularity in India and develop a dedicated Facebook app for its comics and cartoons, which combined with mobile, will help the firm to build its own audience.
The aim was to find the next JK Rowling or Stan Lee who might be somewhere in a village, to stop coloring in Tinkerbell and get creative, Devarajan added.
