Serial Box, the provider of premium serialized entertainment for readers and listeners, announced their $1.65 million seed investment today. Called “the HBO of reading” by NPR and selected by Buzzfeed as a “Must Have app for 2018,” Serial Box produces serialized stories written by teams of critically acclaimed and best-selling writers and releases them weekly in written and audio form.
“With entertainment brands like HQ Trivia and the YouTube channel Smosh harnessing the power of appointment based consumption so successfully, it makes perfect sense to employ this approach with reading.” —Advisor Strauss Zelnick, CEO of TakeTwo Interactive (RockStar Games)
The investment round was led by Boat Rocker Media (recent investments include CAA Creative Labs, The Outline, MarcoPolo Learning and the acquisition of Fremantle Kids & Family). Michel Pratte, the CRO of Boat Rocker, says “Serialization has proven to be a powerful storytelling engine in television, podcasts and in comic books, but it has yet to be properly leveraged in modern-day publishing. We see a big opportunity for Serial Box to be a top tier publishing studio of original serial entertainment and look forward to collaborating with their team as they continue to build their platform for readers and listeners,” said Michel Pratte, CRO of Boat Rocker Media
Serial Box CEO and CoFounder Molly Barton, the former Global Digital Director of Penguin, says “We’re successfully attracting and retaining a loyal premium audience — average order value has increased steadily in the last six months. And we’re seeing the majority of readers enjoy the option to switch over to listening with just a click.”
“Bundling ebook and audio makes natural sense for readers in 2018. I’m delighted to be an early investor in a publishing company that is responding to what customers want.” —Investor Richard Sarnoff (previously Co-Chair of Bertelsmann, and Director on the board of Audible)
Additional early investors in Serial Box include Swedish executive Mattias Lundgren, the CEO of Word Audio Publishing, the number one audiobook and digital content publishing company in Sweden. “Audio is the fastest growing sector within the $125 bn global book market and I am very happy it is a key part of Serial Box’s strategy. Serial Box’s latest audio series illustrate their focus on delivering an immersive audio experience with ambient sound, original music, and sound effects.” —Mattias Lundgren, CEO of Word Audio Publishing
In addition to new investment, Serial Box has recently collaborated with The Associated Press, Adaptive Studios, Hachette Book Group, among others. Serial Box has been featured by NPR, Wired, BuzzFeed and i09, and referred to as a publisher with “stories that look more like television shows than novels” by The Verge.
About Serial Box:
Serials are released through the Serial Box app(s), website, and third party retailers in weekly installments in both e-book and audio formats. During a three-month season, each week’s episode is a 30-minute read or an hour listen. Readers/listeners pay $1.59 week by week or $18 in advance for a whole season (10-13 episodes).
Founded by Molly Barton and Julian Yap, Serial Box brings the power of appointment-based consumption to reading for the first time since Charles Dickens & Little Nell. Barton comes to Serial Box from Penguin Random House, where she was Global Digital Director in charge of the global ebook and audio businesses, digital product innovation and content strategy. Yap previously served as senior counsel in the Department of Justice, after clerking for the Supreme Court of Texas.
