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Japan's Globis invests $4.2m in news aggregator

  • Mirzaan Jamwal
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Globis Capital Partners has invested JPY420 million ($4.29 million) in Tokyo-based Gocro, the start-up behind news aggregation app SmartNews.

The mobile application lets users read articles from major newspapers, websites, and magazines with a reader-friendly interface. According to a company statement, it has partnered with 43 news services and 25 companies for content syndication, and is exploring partnerships in other business sectors.

The funding will be used to increase its headcount from six to 40 over the next year as the company hires more engineers and data scientists.

Founded in June 2012, Gocro plans to develop domestic business as well as prepare for expansion into overseas markets. The company has also developed Crowsnest, an online and mobile service that aggregates news links on Twitter to curate trending news stories.

Globis is currently raising capital for Globis Fund IV, which will focus on Japanese companies looking to capitalize on high-growth Asian markets as well as those in the domestic IT sector.

The fund launched in January with a JPY15 billion target and reached a first close of JPY8 billion in May.

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