SmartNews, the Japan-based news aggregator backed by postal service Japan Post, social media company Mixi and mobile game publisher Gree, secured $230m in series F funding on Wednesday.
The round included financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s SMBC Venture Capital unit, ACA Investments, Princeville Capital, Woodline Partners, the Japanese state-owned JIC Venture Growth Investments, Green Co-Invest Investment and Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office.
Founded in 2012, SmartNews operates a curated news app aggregating stories from hundreds of news providers, tailoring them to each user. It said the latest round valued it at $2bn and took its total funding to over $400m,
The company will use the funding to grow in the US market, doubling its workforce in the country with a focus on New York, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, in addition to expanding its product line for US users.
Japan Post’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Japan Post Capital, co-led a $92m series E round for SmartNews with private equity firm ACA Investments that closed in late 2019, investing with Globis Capital Partners, a subsidiary of education services provider Globis, as well as marketing firm Dentsu and DA Consortium.
The company’s $90m series D was led by state-owned Development Bank of Japan in 2016 and also featured Mixi, Gree, SMBC Venture Capital, Japan Co-Invest Limited Partnership and Kotaro Chiba.
The series D reportedly valued SmartNews at $500m to $600m. Gree had led a $10m bridge round in 2015 that also featured Globis Capital Partners, Atomico, Mixi and Social Venture Partners, at a reported $320m valuation.
Gree also led the company’s $36m series B round in 2014, investing together with Atomico, after Globis Capital Partners had supplied about $4m in series A funding the previous year.
Ken Suzuki, SmartNews’ co-founder and chief executive, said: “Since the company’s inception in 2012, our vision has been to redefine the way we discover and engage with information by supporting diverse, quality journalistic sources and serving our users a wide variety of timely and relevant content that helps improve their daily lives.
“This latest round of funding further affirms the strength of our mission and fuels our drive to expand our presence and launch features that specifically appeal to users and publishers in the United States.”
