About SmartNews
SmartNews is a Media & Entertainment company based in San Francisco (United States) founded in 2012 by Ken Suzuki and Kaisei Hamamoto. Personalized news stories are discovered via machine learning algorithms. SmartNews has raised $410.2 million across 8 funding rounds from investors including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, MIXI and Dentsu. The company has 485 employees. SmartNews was last valued at $2 billion in December 2021. Its chief executive, as recorded, is Kaisei Hamamoto. Its website smartnews.com draws about 2.3 million monthly visits. SmartNews offers products and services including SmartNews App. Its focus areas include Internet First Media, News Portals, Aggregators and Long Stories. Its legal entity is SmartNews, Inc. Its competitors include News Break, MSN and Seekr; 2 of its 3 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
SmartNews was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, United States, as a technology company focused on news discovery. Machine learning algorithms are employed to analyze millions of articles, user behaviors, and social interactions, enabling the delivery of relevant stories on a global scale. Operations center on a mobile application available for Android and iOS platforms, supporting personalized content curation for users worldwide.
- Headquarters San Francisco, United States
- Employees 485
- Founders Ken Suzuki, Kaisei Hamamoto
- Stage Unicorn
- SectorsMedia & Entertainment
- Website category Business and Consumer Services
- Email••••••••
- Phone•••• ••••
- Website smartnews.com/en
- Social LinkedIn X Facebook Instagram
- Legal Name Smartnews, Inc.
- Total Equity Funding$410.2M (USD)
in 8 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$69.29M (USD), Debt – Venture
Jan 2024
- InvestorsSumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
& 20 more
- Employee Count485
Products & Services of SmartNews
SmartNews offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including SmartNews App.
Delivers curated news from trusted sources based on user preferences.
Apps and channels of SmartNews
SmartNews publishes 2 mobile apps with over 50M+ downloads.
Funding Insights of SmartNews
SmartNews has successfully raised a total of $410.2M across 8 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Debt – Venture round of $69.29 million completed in January 2024. 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 $410.2M
- Total Rounds 8
- Last Round Debt – Venture — $69.29M
- First Round $4.2M
(Aug 2013)
- Investors Count 21
All 8 funding rounds of SmartNews 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 2024 | $69.29M | Debt – Venture | – | – | |
| Sep 2021 | $230M | Series F | $2B | Princeville Capital, Woodline Partners | |
| Aug 2019 | $92M | Series E | $1.2B | Japan Post Capital, ACA Investments | |
| Jul 2016 | $38M | Series D | – | Development Bank of Japan, SMBC Venture Capital | |
| Mar 2015 | $10M | Series C | $••••• | – | |
| Aug 2014 | $36M | Series B | – | Atomico, Gree | – |
| Feb 2014 | Series A | – | – | ||
| Aug 2013 | $4.2M | Series A | – | – |
| Date | Valuation | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2021 | $2B | •••••••• |
| Aug 2019 | $1.2B | •••••••• |
| Mar 2015 | $••••• | •••••••• |
Full valuation and stage history of SmartNews
Every valuation point, the growth-stage changes (minicorn, soonicorn, unicorn) and the dates behind them require an active premium plan.
- All valuation points
- Stage changes
- Dates
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Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Last known valuation $2B (Dec 2021). 21 investors in total: 21 institutional.
Investors in SmartNews
SmartNews has secured backing from 21 investors, including institutional and venture fund investors. Prominent investors backing the company include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, MIXI and Dentsu.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tech companies are funded through venture capital by Princeville Capital. | princeville-capital.com | San Francisco, United States | ||
Venture capital fund focused on growth stage companies | j-vgi.co.jp | Minato City, Japan | ||
Private equity investment firm focused on growth stage companies | 2008 | acaisg.com | Singapore, Singapore | |
Private equity investment firm backed by Japan Post Group | jp-capital.jp | Chiyoda City, Japan | ||
Investments are made in startups to drive innovation in Japan's tech and emerging sectors. | globiscapital.co.jp | |||
Early-stage tech ventures in the US and Asia are funded. | gmo-vp.com | Shibuya, Japan | ||
| smbc-vc.co.jp | ||||
Tech-based companies are invested in by Atomico venture capital fund. | 2006 | atomico.com | London, United Kingdom | |
Early-stage venture capital investments are made in US tech sectors. | socialstarts.com | San Francisco, United States | ||
A robust entrepreneur community is supported in Chiba, Japan. | chiba-dojo.jp | Chiba, Japan |
Investor details for SmartNews
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
- Complete investor list
- Round participation
- Investor portfolios
- Co-investor network
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
People of SmartNews
23 people are tracked at SmartNews (17 in leadership, 6 in team); the tracked headcount is 485.
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Ken Suzuki | Co-Founder | Leadership |
Kaisei Hamamoto | Co-Founder & CEO | Leadership |
Reggie Riley | Head Of US Revenue | Revenue Growth, Business Development, Go-to-market Strategy | Leadership |
Cory Ondrejka | Chief Technology Officer | Leadership |
Ankit Singhal | Group Head - Core Infrastructure | Leadership |
Jin Akiyama | CFO | Leadership |
Ben Kelly | Head Of Infrastructure Operations | Leadership |
Yasushi Kobori | Ceo's Office, Director (public Plicy) | Leadership |
Landon Hong | VP Of JP Media & Marketing | Leadership |
Angela Lunter | Senior Manager, Planning & Strategy And Chief Of Staff | Leadership |
Atsushi Kuroiwa | VP Of Corporate Administration | Leadership |
Taku Nishide | Vice President Of Japan Ad Business And Ceo's Office | Leadership |
Sam Steinbach | Global Head Of Legal | Leadership |
Cædman Oakley | Vice President Of Engineering, Infrastructure | Leadership |
Haishan Liu | VP Of Engineering, Ads | Leadership |
Kenshiro Ogi | Senior Ceo's Office Manager / JP Sales Strategy Planning Manager | Leadership |
Jie Yang | Head Of Global Fp&a | Leadership |
Yutaro Fujii | Senior Manager, Industry Sales, JP Ads Business | Team |
Xiang Chen | Engineering Manager Of Ads Product Backend | Team |
Kazutaka Nishiyama | 広告事業部 営業第一部 部長 | Team |
3 more people are available in the full profile.
Complete people profiles for SmartNews
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 SmartNews
5 dated milestones of SmartNews across 12 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded SmartNews is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $4.2M.
- Milestone Reaches Minicorn status.
- Milestone Reaches Unicorn status.
- Funding Latest funding round, Debt – Venture, of $69.3M.
Competitors of SmartNews
SmartNews has 3 listed competitors in our database, 2 of them funded. They include News Break, MSN and Seekr.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| newsbreak.com | 2015 | Mountain View, United States | $140.24M | 122 | Multi-category news is aggregated online by News Break. | |
| 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 SmartNews
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
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Web traffic of SmartNews
The website of SmartNews (smartnews.com) receives about 2.3M visits a month and ranks #29,457 among all websites worldwide, #780 in Business and Consumer Services.
- Monthly visits2.3M
- Unique visitors1.2M
per month
- Global rank#29,457
among all websites
- Category rank#780
Business and Consumer Services
- Bounce rate75%
- Pages per visit2.0
- Average visit1 min 42 sec
- DevicesDesktop 30% · Mobile 70%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with SmartNews. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| advertimes.com | 100% | #126,450 | View details | ||
lycbiz.com | lycbiz.com | 97% | #59,590 | – | |
shueisha.online | shueisha.online | 97% | #7,715 | – | |
rsch.jp | rsch.jp | 95% | #5,232 | – | |
| jorudan.co.jp | 94% | 24.1M | #2,064 | View details | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 40 similar websites and full traffic analytics for SmartNews
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 SmartNews (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 Smartnews
Complete news archive for SmartNews
Full article history, source details, and older brand coverage require an active premium plan.
- Full article archive
- Source and publication date
- Older coverage
- Brand-specific news history
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Frequently Asked Questions about SmartNews
SmartNews was founded in 2012 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.
SmartNews is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. It is registered at San Francisco, California, United States.
Kaisei Hamamoto is the CEO of SmartNews, as recorded in our data. They have also founded this company.
SmartNews is a funded company, having raised a total of $410.2M across 8 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Series A of $4.2M, raised on Aug 2013.
SmartNews has 485 employees.
SmartNews was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, United States, as a technology company focused on news discovery. Machine learning algorithms are employed to analyze millions of articles, user behaviors, and social interactions, enabling the delivery of relevant stories on a global scale. Operations center on a mobile application available for Android and iOS platforms, supporting personalized content curation for users worldwide.
SmartNews's top competitors include News Break, Seekr and MSN.
SmartNews offers SmartNews App.
SmartNews has 21 investors. Key investors include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, MIXI, Dentsu, Atomico, and Development Bank of Japan.
The valuation of SmartNews is $2B as of Dec 2021.
SmartNews operates through Smartnews, Inc..
Yes. SmartNews publishes SmartNews: News That Matters and 1 more app, with over 50 million downloads.