Social reading platform Wattpad raises $48 million in funding

Wattpad announced a massive $48 million third round of financing this morning, saying it would use the cash to expand its team and boost product development. The social reading platform already has 25 million users who spend six billion minutes a month on the platform, the company said, which means Wattpad has doubled in size over the past year. All content on the system is contributed for free by writers looking to build their audience.

“We want to become a billion-user company,” said Wattpad CEO Allen Lau. “There are five billion people who can read and write on this planet, so a billion users is totally achievable.” Well, a billion is still well in the distance, but Wattpad is currently at 25 million monthly users, who write 150,000 stories per day. The growth and loyalty of its readers and writers have enticed venture capitalists to invest another $46 million into the company, which has now raised a total of $67 million. Last time Wattpad raised money, about two years ago, it had eight million users. Since then, it’s also grown from 15 employees to 70, all based in Toronto. The site is home to all sorts of stories, many of them told in installments, including lots of romance, fantasy, sci-fi and fan fiction.