About News Break
News Break is a Media & Entertainment company based in Mountain View (United States) founded in 2015 by Jeff Zheng and Zhaohui Zheng. Multi-category news is aggregated online by News Break. News Break has raised $140.24 million across 6 funding rounds from investors including Francisco Partners and IDG Capital. Its chief executive, as recorded, is Jeff Zheng. Its website newsbreak.com draws about 32 million monthly visits. News Break offers products and services including NewsBreak App. Its focus areas include Internet First Media, News Portals, Aggregators and Long Stories. Its legal entity is Particle Media, Inc. Its competitors include SmartNews, MSN and Seekr; 2 of its 3 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
News Break was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Mountain View, United States. An online platform is operated to aggregate news across categories such as politics, health, entertainment, technology, sports, lifestyle, and business. Content is delivered through a mobile app available on Android and iOS. Monetization is achieved via display advertisements.
- Headquarters Mountain View, United States
- Founders Jeff Zheng, Zhaohui Zheng
- SectorsMedia & Entertainment
- Website category News and Media
- Website newsbreak.com
- Social LinkedIn X Facebook
- Legal Name Particle Media, Inc.
- Total Equity Funding$140.24M (USD)
in 6 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$115M (USD), Series C
Jan 2021
- InvestorsFrancisco Partners
& 1 more
Products & Services of News Break
News Break offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including NewsBreak App.
Application for delivering local news, alerts, and community updates
Apps and channels of News Break
News Break publishes 3 mobile apps with over 50.1M+ downloads.
Funding Insights of News Break
News Break has successfully raised a total of $140.24M across 6 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series C round of $115 million completed in January 2021. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $140.24M
- Total Rounds 6
- Last Round Series C — $115M
- First Round $10M
(May 2015)
- Investors Count 2
All 6 funding rounds of News Break with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2021 | $115M | Series C | – | Francisco Partners | |
| Mar 2018 | $5M | Series A | – | – | – |
| Feb 2018 | $113,400 | Series A | – | – | – |
| Feb 2017 | $6.12M | Series A | – | – | – |
| Nov 2016 | $4M | Series A | – | – | – |
| May 2015 | $10M | Series A | – | – | – |
2 investors in total: 2 institutional.
Investors in News Break
News Break has secured backing from 2 investors, including venture fund investors. Prominent investors backing the company include Francisco Partners and IDG Capital.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Private equity investment firm focused on technology sector | 1999 | franciscopartners.com | San Francisco, United States | |
Venture capital firm | idgcapital.com | New York, United States |
Investor details for News Break
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
- Complete investor list
- Round participation
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People of News Break
15 people are tracked at News Break (5 in leadership, 1 in board & advisors, 9 in team).
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Jeff Zheng | Co-Founder & CEO | Leadership |
Zhaohui Zheng | Co-Founder | Leadership |
Vincent Wu | Chief Operating Officer | Leadership |
Xiaoming Z. | Head of Design, Core | Leadership |
Sally S. | Director Of Human Resources | Leadership |
Harry Shum | Chairman | Board & advisors |
Yiyi Jin | General Counsel | Team |
Yakun C. | Staff Design Lead | Team |
Meng Zhao | Sr. TA Manager | Team |
Irene Wang | Senior Product Designer | Team |
Tiffany Han | Office Manager | Team |
tao hong | Operations Research Analyst | Team |
Yizhuo Liu | Senior Product Designer | Team |
Andrea Sallstrom | Business Operations Manager | Team |
Lynn Li | Talent Acquisition | Team |
Complete people profiles for News Break
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
- Full employee list
- Team structure
- Board tenure
- Professional contacts
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Timeline of News Break
3 dated milestones of News Break across 6 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded News Break is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $10.0M.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series C, of $115.0M.
Competitors of News Break
News Break has 3 listed competitors in our database, 2 of them funded. They include SmartNews, MSN and Seekr.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| smartnews.com | 2012 | San Francisco, United States | $410.2M | Personalized news stories are discovered via machine learning algorithms. | ||
| msn.com | 1995 | Redmond, United States | Operates a web portal that aggregates news and delivers various online services to users. | |||
| seekr.com | 2021 | Vienna, United States | $125M | 60 | Access to information is facilitated through AI by Seekr's platform. |
Detailed competitors of News Break
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
- Full competitor set
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- Competitive positioning
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Web traffic of News Break
The website of News Break (newsbreak.com) receives about 32M visits a month and ranks #2,115 among all websites worldwide, #252 in News and Media.
- Monthly visits32M
- Unique visitors15M
per month
- Global rank#2,115
among all websites
- Category rank#252
News and Media
- Bounce rate49%
- Pages per visit1.9
- Average visit1 min 38 sec
- DevicesDesktop 22% · Mobile 78%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with News Break. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| people.com | 100% | 183.1M | #290 | View details | |
| themirror.com | 98% | 10.9M | #9,041 | View details | |
irishstar.com | irishstar.com | 96% | #29,710 | – | |
the-sun.com | the-sun.com | 96% | #1,668 | – | |
| newsweek.com | 90% | 53M | #1,063 | View details | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 40 similar websites and full traffic analytics for News Break
The complete similar-websites list, audience overlap and engagement analytics require an active premium plan.
- 40 similar websites
- Audience overlap
- Engagement analytics
- Traffic by brand
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Top companies in DTC Media Innovators
3 companies that operate in the same segment as News Break (DTC Media Innovators) in United States, ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multi-category news is delivered through an app-based platform. | 2016 | Arlington, Virginia, United States | USD 30 M | 356 | ||
Online platform publishing content focusing on investment | 2011 | Chicago, Illinois, United States | USD 60.4 M | |||
Subscription-based sports media is delivered to local premium audiences. | 2016 | Chicago, Illinois, United States | USD 134.42 M |
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Related news about News Break
Complete news archive for News Break
Full article history, source details, and older brand coverage require an active premium plan.
- Full article archive
- Source and publication date
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- Brand-specific news history
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Frequently Asked Questions about News Break
News Break was founded in 2015.
News Break is headquartered in Mountain View, United States. It is registered at Mountain View, California, United States.
Jeff Zheng is the CEO of News Break, as recorded in our data. They have also founded this company.
News Break is a funded company, having raised a total of $140.24M across 6 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Series A of $10M, raised on May 2015.
News Break was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Mountain View, United States. An online platform is operated to aggregate news across categories such as politics, health, entertainment, technology, sports, lifestyle, and business. Content is delivered through a mobile app available on Android and iOS. Monetization is achieved via display advertisements.
News Break offers NewsBreak App.
News Break has 2 investors. Key investors include Francisco Partners, and IDG Capital.
News Break operates through Particle Media, Inc..
Yes. News Break publishes NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts and 2 more apps, with over 50.1 million downloads.
The website of News Break receives about 32 million visits a month and ranks #2,115 among all websites worldwide.