Comics crowdfunding platform Zoop has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Republic, seeking to raise up to $1.24 million from investors. The raise values Zoop at $6 million pre-money, with a lower valuation of $5.1 million for the first $300,000 of capital invested.
In addition to the equity share, investors can receive other perks, including exclusive limited edition comics with multiple variant covers and graded copies at multiple tiered levels depending on the size of the investment.
The company revealed some financial information in support of the raise. Zoop has processed $2 million in transactions (with a 15% commission rate) from 22,000 registered users in 25,000 transactions, since launch. Its campaigns have an 88% success rate, which the company says is more than double the industry standard.
Funds processed were $332,435 in 2021, $655,857 in 2022, and $698,329 in 2023.
Zoop is differentiating itself in the investment materials by emphasizing services not available from other crowdfunding platforms, including fulfillment, printing, manufacturing, and an e-commerce marketplace.
Zoop was founded in 2021 by former ComicBlitz CEO Jordan Plosky, former IDW Publishing licensing and business development executive Eric Moss, and CTO Marvin Osswald (see “Comics Vets Launch New Comics Crowdfunding Platform”). All three co-founders will be full time with Zoop for the full year for the first time in 2024.
Plotz has a history with crowdfunding: ComicBlitz raised $87,810 on WeFunder in 2017 (see “ComicBlitz Sold to Cindeigm“).
Other companies in the geek space have also raised equity investment via crowdfunding. Skybound Entertainment was the big winner with a campaign (also on Republic) that launched in January 2023 (see “Skybound Crowdfunding Equity Raise“) and ended up raising $17,843,500 on a $500 million pre-money valuation. Other campaigns were less successful (see “1985 Games Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign“).
The Zoop campaign, which runs until June 13, raised $88,250 on its first day.
Source: ICv2
