Japan-based news reading app developer SmartNews has secured $36m in a series B round led by the corporate venturing unit of social gaming company Gree, Re/code reported on Thursday.
The round also included investment firm Atomico. Gree’s investment is being made through its $100m business development fund, which finds companies with which Gree is able to build business relationships.
SmartNews, which has over four million users, uses algorithms to curate trending news stories and mines the most popular news topics and categories from Twitter. Following the investment, SmartNews plans to launch a US version of its app.
SmartNews raised $4m in series A funding in August 2013 from venture capital firm Globis Capital Partners.
– Image courtesy smartnews.be