Weeks after launching an in-app digital stationery store, note-taking company Goodnotes said today that it has invested $1.9 million in a South Korea-based digital stationery company. WeBudding.
WeBudding was founded by Donghwan Shin, Donggyun Ko, and Chaeyoung Lee in 2018. The trio started out selling personalized paper notebooks to college students, but eventually, they created a digital hub. It now sells various digital office items such as planners, journals, stickers and notebooks. The company told TechCrunch that 80% of its sales come from mobile phones while 20% come from its websites.
Aside from the investment from Goodnotes, WeBudding also secured a $200,000 investment from Strong Ventures – making this a Series A round worth $2.1 million. The digital stationary startup has received $4.7 million in funding to date. While the company did not reveal the exact valuation, it told TechCrunch that the latest round brought a 52% jump in valuation.
WeBudding has already hosted a lot of Goodnotes-compatible assets on its platforms. With the recent launch of the Goodnotes store and strategic investment, WeBudding plans to develop globally relevant content for the note-taking app store.
Shen, CEO of the digital stationery startup, said WeBudding is looking to improve its mobile app and also work on localizing content for different countries.
“We’re also expanding our offerings to include things like KakaoTalk [a South Korea-based chat app] Threads. Additionally, we want to work with popular IPs such as artists and musicians to create branded digital stationery.
WeBudding said it has 2,500 creators with more than 16,000 items in the store. It did not reveal how these creators are compensated and what percentage of the discount the company takes from digital stationery sales.
In August, Goodnotes updated its app in four years with features like AI-powered handwriting and a digital marketplace. The company, which was named Apple’s iPad App of the Year for 2022, has 21 million monthly active users.