Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: 1AM, 2 Punks, Deftly, delcourt, DSTLRY, ESPT, GFR, John Schappert, kodansha, lorenzo di bonaventura

Dstlry Raise $5000000 From Kodansha, Delcourt & Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Dstlry raises five million from Kodansha, Delcourt, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, 1AM, 2 Punks, Deftly, ESPT, GFR and John Schappert.

Published Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:57:09 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Dstlry raises $5M from investors like Kodansha, Delcourt, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to expand comic book publishing.
Funding round brings Dstlry's total to $7.4M for securing content deals and enhancing its digital marketplace.
Investment bolsters Dstlry's creator-owned ethos, enabling revenue generation through digital collectables.
New board member Gregory Milken enhances Dstlry's vision with expertise in gaming and venture capital.

Boutique omic book publisher Dstlry, founded by David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, and publishing comics by Jamie McKelvie, Jock, Becky Cloonan, Tula Lotay, Brian Azzarello, Chip Zdarsky and many more, has raised $5 million in a new seed round of funding. And unlike certain former NFL quarterbacks has decided to spend it on the comic books. This seed round funding brings the total raised since 2022 to $7.4 million and will be used to secure additional content deals and expand features set for Dstlry's digital marketplace. Which includes signing up more comic book creators and paying them advances. The investors include the following:

1AM Gaming – venture capital firm for gaming run by Gregory Milken and Frank Liquido
2 Punks Capital – an early-stage investment fund run by Stephen Sullivan and Jacob Martin, targeting web3, social, and gaming startups
Deftly Ventures – a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in early-stage technology-based startups, and who previously invested in Dstlry's first round.
ESPT Ventures – an early stage fund focused on interactive entertainment, gaming, sports and consumer, founded by Ryan Gately.
GFR Fund – a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology startups disrupting the digital media and entertainment space, especially AI.
Groupe Delcourt – French book publisher, one of the biggest comic book publishers in the world.
John Schappert – Programmer on John Madden Football, COO at EA Games, VP at Microsoft for Xbox Live, COO of Zynga and CEO of Shiver Entertainment
Kodansha USA – US wing of Japanese publisher and multimedia corporation, one of the other biggest comic book publishers in the world.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura – producer of Transformers, GI Joe, Stardust, Constantine, The Meg, and Red movies, Jupiter's Legacy on TV, discovered The Matrix, and bought the film rights to Harry Potter.

This has also seen 1AM Gaming's Gregory Milken, who ran this year's seed investment, join the board of Dstlry. Dstlry co-founder David Steinberger told GamesBeat "This latest investment and the addition of Gregory's knowledge and expertise to our board is hugely significant for Dstlry and our ambitions going forwards. Our unique creator-owned ethos means we are bringing the best creators onto our platform and enabling them to generate new revenue streams through digital collectables and other activations – many of which fans got their first taste of at Comic-Con in San Diego this month."

Mike Vorhaus, from Vorhaus Advisors, involved in these investments, stated, "Given the harsh environment for fundraising today, it is almost unheard of to see a startup secure such a substantial round. Yet, Dstlry has defied these odds, securing $5 million during this time—a testament to their unique value proposition and industry-leading innovation. This is the only startup I know of that has closed a round this big during the AI boom that didn't have AI at the core of their business. David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, who previously collaborated on a successful venture ultimately sold to Amazon, have once again demonstrated their ability to navigate and thrive in challenging markets."

Talking of AI, David Steinberger said, "I do think there's some experimentation out there. But honestly, I think all the AI is just going to lead to a higher value for verification of real human-made stuff. We know with our creators they live and breathe and make their money from creation. I think there are lots of great tools for AI to you to be used on are for great uses. But making comic books, I think, is a personal and human kind of thing."

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