NextPlanetOver.com was launched in 1998 to sell comic books over the Internet. Earlier this month, the company received $5 million in venture financing in order to relaunch its site with expanded offerings that include action figures, animation videos and other entertainment-related merchandise.
The new Web site is slated to launch in August.
@Ventures, the venture capital arm of Andover, Mass.-based CMGI, led the Series A round with a $3 million investment. IDG Ventures, a division of publishing company IDG, contributed $2 million.
“If you look at [CMGI portfolio companies] Reel.com and CarParts.com you see that we are where they were six months ago,” said Chief Executive Dave Scott. “In order to win, we wanted to be as close as we could to other companies like us, and other potential partners.”
Scott and co-founder Dave Reid, both avid comic book readers, decided to launch an e-commerce site while at Wharton. As the site began to attract a following, the two elected to sell additional merchandise geared toward the “entertainment hobbyist.”
“Comics will always be a core for us because it crosses multiple genres,” Scott said. “As we expand our database and carve out our demographic you will see us branch into other products very quickly.”
Proceeds from the investment will go to relaunch the site, establish a San Francisco headquarters and invest in traditional and online media campaigns.
IDG, which publishes computer magazines, invested in NextPlanetOver in order to bolster its international operations.
“There is a huge market to be obtained oversees, globalization is pretty cool,” said IDG General Partner Pat Kenealy. “We expect future rounds to finance the company’s international marketing.”
Scott said the company will likely recruit strategic partnerships and later-stage venture capital firms in future rounds.
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