~ Fukunaga, An Anime Industry Legend Previously Built the World’s Leading Anime Platform through Funimation which later acquired Crunchyroll. The Global Webtoon Market is Expected to Grow to $60 Billion by 2030 ~
Mumbai: July 26, 2024 – Toonsutra, India’s homegrown webtoon comic app, announced today that industry legend, Gen Fukunaga has joined the Company as an investor and Advisory Board member.
Fukunaga brings decades of experience in anime, pop-culture and streaming platforms, having previously founded Funimation which was sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment and acquired Crunchyroll to become the world’s leading anime digital platform, and one of the most successful streaming platforms globally. Goldman Sachs last year estimated Crunchyroll will account for 36% of all profit in the Sony Pictures Entertainment segment, encompassing the conglomerate’s film and TV content businesses, by 2028.
Toonsutra has quickly established itself as the #1 comic app in India in both the Apple and Android stores with over a million downloads of the app already. The Company is founded by veteran media entrepreneurs, Sharad Devarajan and Vishal Anand who bring decades of Indian startup and media experience.
The excitement for the global webtoon market continues to grow with the recent US$2.7 Billion IPO by Naver’s Webtoon Entertainment last month, the medium and fandom around these new storytelling comic platforms is finding new audiences and territories. The global webtoon market is projected to reach a staggering $60 Billion by 2030, making it one of the highest growing new categories for media and content.
Commenting on Toonsutra, Fukunaga said, “The webtoon market is experiencing explosive growth globally, reminiscent of the anime boom we saw with Funimation. Toonsutra’s innovative approach to bringing world-class content to Indian audiences, combined with their deep understanding of local preferences, positions them perfectly to capitalize on this trend.
I’m excited to bring my experience in building global fan communities to help Toonsutra become the definitive platform for digital comics and pop culture in India.”
Vishal Anand, Toonsutra’s CEO added, “Gen Fukunaga’s decision to join Toonsutra as an investor and advisor is a testament to the immense potential of the Indian digital content market. His unparalleled experience in scaling anime and manga platforms will be invaluable as we continue to expand our offerings and enhance our user experience. With Gen’s guidance, we’re not just aiming to be India’s top webtoon app – we’re building a comprehensive ecosystem for digital storytelling that will reshape how Indian youth consume and interact with content.”
“Gen’s amazing experience in helping build one of the world’s most successful fandom platforms is invaluable to us as we pioneer the webtoon revolution for India. Toonsutra’s mission is to bring together a community of passionate fandom and pop-culture, catering to the largest youth market in the world – India’s 700 million+ mobile youth market,” added, Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Toonsutra.
Toonsutra is the only premium webtoon comics app in the region dedicated to catering to Indian audiences with Hindi, Tamil and Telegu language content offerings. The Company has locked up exclusive partnership deals with some of the biggest global publishers and creators to bring over 550+ titles and 250,000 episodes of content into local Indian languages – the largest offering of premium, high-quality, webtoon comic content ever assembled for this market.
Toonsutra is backed by a leading group of investors including the Sony Innovation Fund; Maiora Capital, Kun Gao (Co-Founder, Crunchyroll); Jeremy Liew (partner, Lightspeed); Kevin Lin (Co-Founder, Twitch); Patrick Lee (Co-Founder, Rotten Tomatoes); Holly Lui (Co-Founder, Kabam); Benjamin Grubbs (Co-Founder, CreatorPlus); Steve Chung (fmr. CEO of Americas, CJENM); and others.
