Web Novel Platform 'Radish' Secures 76 Billion KRW Investment

Participation by Mirae Asset and others
Lee Jin-su, CEO of Kakao Page, appointed as outside director

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The global web novel platform 'Radish' announced on the 16th that it has secured an additional investment of 76 billion KRW.

New investors include institutional investors such as Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, Partners Investment, and Daekyo Investment. Radish is a Korean-American company founded in February 2016 in the United States, having received early investments from SoftBank Ventures, Lowercase Capital, and Naver Webtoon. It has offices in Seoul and New York and provides mobile-optimized web novel content to English-speaking markets.

Radish also announced plans to appoint Lee Jin-soo, CEO of KakaoPage, Lee Jun-pyo, CEO of SoftBank Ventures, and angel investor Kim Sang-heon, former CEO of Naver, as outside directors. Last year, Radish appointed Sue Johnson, former Executive Vice President of ABC in the U.S., as Chief Content Officer (COO), and Shin Jong-hoon, co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of KakaoPage (formerly Podotree), as Chief Technology Officer.

Last year, Radish produced two web novel series that each generated monthly sales exceeding 70 million KRW. The original series that ranked first in sales surpassed 52 million cumulative views and 4.6 billion KRW in cumulative sales within nine months of serialization. Radish Originals are created by writers who have won the 'Emmy Award' more than 14 times, using a Hollywood studio-style collective creation method. Additionally, data analysis experts participate in production to set the serialization direction based on readers' responses. The collective creativity of the writers, insights from data experts, and feedback from readers are all reflected in content creation.

In the first half of this year, daily sales exceeded 136 million KRW, a growth of more than 25 times compared to the same period last year. Monthly sales reached approximately 3 billion KRW, a 20-fold increase year-on-year. Lee Seung-yoon, CEO of Radish, said, "This large-scale investment recognizes the infinite potential of novel intellectual property (IP), the source content of the entertainment market," adding, "We will create hit works in more diverse genres and open new horizons for the paid web novel market in English-speaking countries."