Japan's SmartNews secures $38m Series D

SMBC Venture Capital also participated in the funding round, according to a release, along with Japan Co-Invest, a vehicle managed by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Investment. SmartNews will use the new capital to accelerate growth, hiring and business development, and to improve its machine learning technology for news discovery.

Since its founding in 2012, SmartNews has partnered with more than 250 Japanese publishers and 150 in the US, to bring content from 1,500 publications to its users. The company, which has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco and New York, aims to connect users with news stories that they would not seek out on their own, with algorithms designed to serve up interesting or surprising content based on a customer's location and preferences.

SmartNews also operates an in-house mobile ad network, SmartNews Ads, that has attracted such global brands as Google, Netflix, and Paramount, along with prominent Japanese brands Shiseido and Suntory, among others. The platform, launched last year, so far operates only in Japan, though publishers outside Japan can also advertise on the main SmartNews app.

SmartNews has raised several rounds of funding since its founding. In its Series C round last year, Japanese internet gaming firm Gree led existing investors Atomico and Globis Capital Partners, along with newcomers Social Venture Partners, to invest $10 million in the company. Gree and Atomico had previously led SmartNews' JPY3.6 billion ($35 million) Series B round in 2014.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
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• Japan
• SMBC Venture Capital
• TMT