News discovery app startup SmartNews closes $92M Series E to deliver quality news using machine learning

Back in August, we wrote about SmartNews when the news discovery app startup joined the startup unicorn club after raising $28 million in funding. SmartNews is now the fastest-growing news app in the U.S. with 500% year over year growth.

Today, SmartNews announced it has closed $92 million Series E funding to continue the expansion of its global engineering teams for mobile, backend and machine learning development, fueling the company’s growth in the U.S. and worldwide. The round was led by a group of investors led by Japan Post Capital Co. Ltd. and ACA Investments Pte Ltd. Additional investors include Globis Capital Partners Co., Ltd., Dentsu, Inc, and D.A.Consortium Inc. (Hakuhodo DY Group). The latest capital infusion brings SmartNews’s total funding to $182 million to date on a $1.2 billion valuation.

Founded in 2012 by Kaisei Hamamoto and Ken Suzuki, the  Tokyo Japan-based SmartNews is a machine learning-powered news discovery used loved by millions. The startup helps users discover the most interesting and important stories that matter right now. SmartNews won numerous “App of the Year” awards in Japan and is consistently ranked as a top 5 News App for Android and iOS in the US. The startup provides news that matters to millions of users thanks to its unique machine learning technology and relationships with over 400 U.S. publisher partners.

In September 2019, the company released its “News From All Sides” political slider, which harnesses SmartNews’s state-of-the-art AI to empower readers to see media coverage from different political perspectives. In October 2019, SmartNews announced SmartView First, a licensing option that benefits both the media ecosystem and readers themselves. This partnership program already includes more than 30 major content providers including BBC, Business Insider, Bloomberg, BuzzFeed, and Reuters.

“The close of our newest funding round represents an important milestone for SmartNews,” said Ken Suzuki, Co-Founder and CEO of SmartNews. “Our investment partners have recognized the value that we provide to our readers and the media ecosystem we help support. Together, we will continue to provide quality information to those who need it, both in the US and worldwide.”