Joyful Reading Company

Joyful Reading Company is an ed-tech company formed in March 2026 through Beanstack's acquisition of Comics Plus, bringing together a leading reading motivation platform and a premier digital comics and graphic novel service under one umbrella. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the company is led by CEO Felix Lloyd, co-founder of Beanstack, which was founded in 2013. Joyful Reading Company's mission is to make reading fun and full of joy — serving over 3,600 library systems, 9,000 school buildings, and 18 million readers. The company operates three core products: Beanstack, a reading motivation and gamification platform that tracks reading and drives engagement through challenges and rewards; Comics Plus, which provides unlimited, simultaneous access to comics, graphic novels, manga, and picture books with no holds, waitlists, or borrowing limits — with publishers including Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Kodansha, and Yen Press; and the Reading Motivation Index, a research-based assessment measuring 10 intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation factors defined by the National Reading Research Center. Comics Plus has recorded over 2 million checkouts and Beanstack has accumulated over 8 billion minutes read on its platform. The company received a private equity investment from Achieve Partners in November 2025 prior to the Comics Plus acquisition. For the comic book community, Joyful Reading Company represents a significant institutional partner: Comics Plus is one of the primary channels through which independent comic publishers reach school and library audiences at scale, making the company an important piece of the infrastructure connecting indie comics to the next generation of readers.