Gen-Z founded Voyce.Me closes seed round at $2.5m led by Torch Capital

 Voyce.Me, a first-of-its-kind manga and webtoon creator platform founded by 21-year-old Dylan Telano, closed a seed round at $2.5 million led by Torch Capital, Red Sea Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, M13 Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Clearview Media Partners. 

In addition to the firms, prolific executives have also contributed to this round, including former Roblox and Marvel Studios CFO Matt Finick, former co-founder and CEO of Rotten Tomatoes Patrick Lee, Chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment Jeff Gaspin, former CNN president Jon Klein, VICE board member and former SVP of Sirius XM Radio Rachna Bhasin and more. 

Dylan Telano, Founder and CEO, Voyce.Me: "I have been passionate about delivering a manga and webtoon platform for creators in the US, since I always felt that area was extremely lacking, especially with the massive growth anime has experienced in recent years. I'm thrilled to continue to build this one-of-a-kind platform that will empower creators to develop and monetize content and engage directly with and grow their audiences, and to see so many trusted and respected voices in the industry believe and invest in Voyce.Me is a dream come true."

Manga and anime are some of the largest entertainment industries in Asia with the current global anime market valued at $24.8 billion and an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7%. Now, with successful series on major streaming platforms including Netflix, and the fantasy genre taking over Hollywood, anime and manga are expected to double in size from 2020 to 2028. Voyce.Me was established because English language manga and anime webcomics creators were not being properly supported. With three distinct offerings, Voyce.Me empowers creators to develop, publish and make money off of their IP on the platform, while producing its own content in-house with original and licensed IP, and licensing IP from creator's UGC (user generated content). Creators can make money in a variety of ways, including microtransactions, IP licensing, and NFT-related exclusive assets made from their content.

Matt Finick, Former CFO of Marvel Studios and Roblox: "I've strongly believed in Voyce.Me since the moment Dylan walked me through the platform. I've also experienced first hand through my previous roles just how massive this area of fandom is – it's one of the fastest growing genres in the world – and in looking at Voyce.Me's future plans, it's clear this company is going to leave a huge mark in this space."

As not only a content distribution platform, but also a social platform for creators to engage directly with the community, Voyce.Me has experienced massive growth with over 8M pageviews per month, nearly 350K unique views per month and an average of 23 minutes spent on the platform. Some of the well-known creators Voyce.Me has already worked with include Inspired Author, The Karrigan Taylor, Dave Arditor and Project Divider. 

Future growth plans around the company include senior management hiring in tech and audience development departments, building on the current platform technology, hiring quality developers, and scaling the product line. In addition, there will be a huge focus on content, with the goal of developing and distributing over 40 new original titles in the next year - all with different creators and artists sharing their stories.

www.voyce.me