1.2 million euros for Aquafadas and its digital comic solutions Ave!Comics

aqua[France] The list of French tech firms that have raised over €1 million in 2009 that we published last week is already obsolete, and that’s great! French company Aquafadas have announced that they’ve raised 1.2 million euros with Credit Agricole Private Equity and Soridec.

Aquafadas started its activities by creating several Mac applications related to creating animation and organising media. The business model for these apps were old school: you can download a demo for free and then buy the full application. I would say that Mac users are more accustomed to buying software than PC users, especially these kind of apps. In 2008 Aquafadas had a turn over of 580k euros and now has 40 employees.

ave-comicsThe new funding is to be used to develop Aquafadas’ newest product called Ave!Comics, a solution that allows comics to be adapted for use on mobile phones and on computers. They’ve largely concentrated on the iPhone and now have several comics available in the App Store as well as a more generic app called “Ave Comics” (see video demo) that’s also available on Android, Blackberry and the Orange tablet Tabbee. They’re mostly, though not exclusively, targeting Latin countries.

The business model is multi-faceted. They sell each comic or iPhone App for a low price (from 0,79 euros to 5 euros) but they are also offering their catalogue on a white label basis.

The digitization of comics is a very active field in France (comics have always been heavily consumed by the French) and several companies such as Aquafadas with Ave!Comics are developing apps to read comics on various digital devices. Competitors include BDTouch, Digibidi, Choyooz and Mobilire (this article in French gives a good overview of the whole ecosystem), although Ave!Comics say they are the only one to offer their comics on both mobile and on the desktop.