Semafor hits $330 million valuation in latest fundraise to fuel global expansion

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Semafor said on Wednesday it has closed a $30 million financing round, valuing the digital media startup at $330 million post-money, after its first profitable year.

Semafor's latest funding round saw participation from existing investors, along with new backers including PSP, Belgian entrepreneur Thomas Leysen and K Group.

The startup aims to expand globally and bolster its live journalism events with the new capital injection, in a highly competitive industry where trust in news has shrunk.

Consultancy firm Gallup said in October that a study found Americans' confidence in mass media has edged down to a new low of 28% last year, down from 31% in 2024.

Large publishers are facing declines in traffic originating from search engines such as Google, as users are relying on AI-powered chatbots for conversational responses to their queries.

Semafor, however, said it generated $2 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization on revenue of $40 million last year, marking its first year of profitability.

Its email subscriptions, exceeding one million, are heavily concentrated among C-suite executives, including an invitation-only newsletter called The CEO Signal.

The startup said it plans to augment its team of journalists across key beats such as Washington, D.C., Wall Street, Silicon Valley, politics, global business, finance and economics.

Semafor was launched in 2022 with $25 million in funding from investors, including media executives and the now-disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried. The company later raised $19 million in 2023, partly to repurchase about $10 million of Bankman-Fried's original investment.