Goodnotes invests $1.9M in digital stationary company WeBudding
2022 iPad App of the Year and notetaking app Goodnotes announced its investment in WeBudding. The company invested $1.9 million (KRW2.5 billion) in the digital stationary platform. In addition to the funding received from Goodnotes, WeBudding secured a $200,000 investment from Strong Ventures. This brings the total for their Series A round to $2.1 million.
Goodnotes, which participated as a Strategic Investor, boasts the title of the world’s leading note-taking app. The company has over 21 million monthly active users across the globe. Last year, Goodnotes users collectively generated a staggering 1.9 billion digital notebooks. This investment closely follows the recent release of Goodnotes 6, marking a significant milestone as the company becomes the world’s pioneering AI-powered digital paper firm, introducing the industry’s first generative AI for handwritten text.
Donghwan Shin, Donggyun Ko, and Chaeyoung Lee founded WeBudding in 2018. Initially, the trio began their venture by offering physical paper notebooks tailored to university students. However, over time, they transitioned into the digital realm. Today, their product range includes digital stationery items like planners, journals, stickers, and digital notebooks.
WeBudding marks Goodnotes’ first investment, aiming to foster the expansion of a worldwide ecosystem for universally accessible digital paper. Irrespective of their objectives, Goodnotes users, from trip planning to exam preparation and journaling, gain access to a wide range of valuable paper templates, planners, stickers, and notebook covers offered by WeBudding.
“WeBudding is spearheading the newly emerging digital stationery market and has proven that it can attract thousands of talented content creators from around the world,” said Steven Chan, Founder and CEO of Goodnotes. “We see great synergy with WeBudding and trust that our investment and knowledge of the global tablet market will help WeBudding expand their footprint abroad.”
WeBudding has around 2,500 active creators who provide more than 16,000 unique products. Thanks to the rising popularity of Goodnotes and the increasing use of tablets in everyday life, They have experienced a remarkable year-on-year sales growth of 220% from January to August 2023.
