The American media Semafor wants to turn the FTX page

A year after raising funds from the ex-FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried and a handful of other investors, the American online media “Semafor” raises again. But this time, it’s to buy out the fallen cryptocurrency mogul’s stake.

According to Reuters and the “New York Times”, this information and newsletter site, centered on politics, business and technology and founded by the former columnist of the New York daily, Ben Smith, and the former boss of Bloomberg Media Group, Justin B. Smith, has just raised $19 million from prestigious investors. Among them, the co-founder of Yahoo Jerry Yang, that of KKR Henry Kravis, or Stand Together, a philanthropic organization created by Republican billionaire Charles Koch.

This lifting aims to replace the approximately 10 million dollars that Sam Bankman-Fried had invested last year, a few months before the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency platform and the lawsuits that followed. The financier, who plead not guilty of the 13 counts against him, is notably accused of corruption, fraud, money laundering and violation of the rules of financing of electoral campaigns.

Chapter closed

Following this capital contribution, the 10 million dollars contributed by Sam Bankman-Fried will be placed in a separate account to be returned to its creditors at the request of the authorities, Justin B. Smith told the “New York Times”. Sam Bankman-Fried did not strictly speaking hold shares in “Semafor”, but a right to future shares, the media co-founder said on Twitter last December.

Always on the social network, Justin B. Smith was delighted Wednesday to turn this painful page. “Happy to close this chapter. The fundraiser is a 100% success thanks to a brilliant team + a remarkably strong audience and revenue growth from the start,” he commented.

Created in October 2022, a month before the outbreak of the FTX affair, Semafor, which has around sixty employees, will be able to focus on its development. Financed by advertising and the organization of events, the media, which targets an audience of opinion leaders, has, according to the American press, 400,000 subscribers to its free newsletters.