Updated:
Tapas Media
Tapas Media was founded in 2012 by Tommy Lee, Daniel Huh, and Chang Kim, who noticed a gap between webtoons and traditional publishing in North America.
Tapas Media
Tapas Media was founded in 2012 by Tommy Lee, Daniel Huh, and Chang Kim, who noticed a gap between webtoons and traditional publishing in North America. The founders bootstrapped the platform initially, later raising venture capital from Advancit Capital and others. Kim took over as CEO and led the company through a growth phase that saw it acquire rival platform Radish Fiction in 2021. The company operates a two-sided marketplace: creators upload serialized comics and fiction, readers pay per chapter via micro-transactions (virtual 'ink') or subscribe for ad-free access. By 2020, Tapas claimed over 8 million monthly active users and hosted titles that later became streaming adaptations, such as 'The Remarried Empress' and 'Solo Leveling.' Its acquisition by Kakao Entertainment in May 2021 valued the company at approximately $510 million (per The Verge, 2021). The platform competes with Webtoon, also owned by Naver, in the fast-growing digital comics space. Headquarters remain in Los Angeles, with an office in San Francisco serving as the engineering hub. Team size has not been disclosed since the acquisition. Kakao folded Tapas into its global studio division, alongside Radish and existing Korean webtoon properties, creating a combined library of hundreds of thousands of series. Tapas Media's structural differentiator is its micro-transaction business model: rather than subscriptions or ad-only, readers buy virtual ink tokens to unlock individual episodes, a model adapted from Kakao's Korean webtoon playbook but applied to an English-language market. This gives the platform flexibility to monetize both mainstream and niche creator works while avoiding the all-you-can-eat pricing that burdens subscription platforms.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2012
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Los Angeles
Corporate office
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Additional offices
San Francisco, CA, United States
Principals
Chang Kim
CEO
Tommy Lee
Co-Founder
Daniel Huh
Co-Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Tapas Media?
Chang Kim is the CEO and leads strategic direction for Tapas Media. Since the 2021 acquisition by Kakao Entertainment, significant decisions are made in conjunction with Kakao's global studio leadership team in South Korea. Investment in content and platform features is managed internally.
How does Tapas Media source proprietary deal flow?
Tapas sources content through its open submission platform, where any creator can upload series. It also acquires IP via exclusive licensing agreements and occasional purchases of smaller webtoon libraries. The Radish Fiction acquisition added a substantial fiction catalog in 2021.
Is Tapas Media structured as a family office or does it operate more like a venture firm?
Tapas Media is an operating company in the digital publishing space, not a family office, asset manager, or venture firm. It generates revenue from micro-transactions and advertising. Since the acquisition, it operates as a subsidiary of Kakao Entertainment's global content division.
What investment stages does Tapas Media typically target?
Tapas does not make external investments; it acquires content and IP through its platform's contracts. The one known significant acquisition was Radish Fiction, a competitor, which it bought in 2021 before being acquired itself.
Which sectors does Tapas Media explicitly avoid?
Tapas focuses on serialized fiction and digital comics. It does not publish non-fiction, video content, or book-length novels without serialized chapter formats. The platform is optimized for mobile reading, so content requiring complex visual layouts (e.g., PDFs or dense prose) is uncommon.
How is Tapas Media related to Kakao Entertainment?
Kakao Entertainment acquired Tapas Media in May 2021 and subsequently folded it into its global studio division. Tapas shares resources—such as IP licensing, editorial pipelines, and distribution—with Kakao's existing webtoon assets, though it continues to operate under the Tapas brand for English-language audiences.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
Tapas Media was venture-backed before the acquisition, not a family office or fortune-generated vehicle. The founding capital came from the founders and early-stage investors such as Advancit Capital. The current capital structure is determined by Kakao Entertainment's corporate budget.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: