Semafor has raised $30 million at a $330 million valuation from a group of backers after 2025 marked the three-year-old company’s first profitable year.
The backers include KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, David Rubenstein of Carlyle Group and Penny Pritzker’s PSP Partners. This comes after generating $40 million in revenue last year and $2 million in profit.
“The proof is in the numbers: we’ve set a new historic standard for the global news industry at a time when it is more challenged than ever,” CEO Justin Smith said in a statement. “With this successful, profitable model in place, we will aggressively invest in our global journalism and convening platforms in the US and around the world.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
Smith told the Journal he wants the company to produce journalism that’s “completely global in outlook, really focused on high-quality independent, I would say even, cerebral journalism.” The company is also exploring offering subscriptions in the future.
Kravis and Rubenstein are returning investors in Semafor’s new funding round, which makes up 60% of the investment. New backers include PSP, Thomas Leysen and the international media company the Antenna Group. Theodore Kyriakou, the group’s chairman, has actively invested in multiple media ventures.
Semafor hopes to use the funds to expand its live-events business, one of the company’s pillars, including through its annual World Economy Summit. It also wants to bolster its current newsletter offerings focused on Washington, D.C., the Gulf and business, hire more journalists and expand its suite through a China-focused newsletter tailored to CEOs.
Smith, a former chief executive at Bloomberg Media, started the company in October 2022 alongside former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief and New York Times media columnist Ben Smith. It has since expanded to include reporters in the U.K., Africa and Saudi Arabia, among other locations.
The company, known for its Greek-inspired name and its golden hue, aimed to tailor its global journalism toward the “English-speaking, college-educated, professional class.” It initially launched with $25 million in funding, with some backing by disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The company eventually repurchased roughly $10 million in financing from him.
The growth comes as the media industry has largely been in a state of decline, with layoffs in media and entertainment reaching new heights last year after declines in web traffic and growing threats from AI and shifting consumer habits. Some media outlets, however, have managed to expand, including Axios and the D.C.-focused NOTUS.
