, a self-described “news app” that claims 500 percent userbase growth in the United States over the past year, has raised a fresh round of capital. The new values the firm at $1.1 billion, it announced. SmartNews previously led by the Ìý²¹²Ô»å led by .

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The Tokyo-based company has raised since it was born in 2012. SmartNews stated in a release that it has 20 million monthly active users, or MAUs, in the United States and Japan.1 In June it that SmartNews had 15 million DAUs.

Here’s a look at the company’s fundraising history:

The news that SmartNews had raised a nice chunk of new money received normal coverage from the technology and business press (here’s and ). It also picked up a little doubt. , the former founder of , a publication focused on the economics of media before selling in 2012, weighed in as well.

In Ali said the following:

Hasn’t everyone learned this lesson already, chasing unicorn status for media startups is likely the kiss of death? Of what use is putting that giant target on your back, when the buyers are scarce?

His argument is twofold. First, that this sort of fundraise tells other companies that the SmartNews market is lucrative, possibly leading to competition or a squeeze from platforms. And, second, that it’s hard to exit a media company at such a high price.

Both criticisms are valid. Media-focused startups haven’t had a great run in America in recent quarters. However, the landscape abroad looks a bit different.

Aggregation For Fun And Profit

Media-focused upstarts have a bad rap in America. With the , the , the , and , it’s difficult to be optimistic about the future of media and news-centered startups domestically.

But the local market is not the global market. Outside of this country’s borders, there’s reason for optimism regarding media apps and news aggregators in particular.

Two examples come to mind. First, China-based , a Tencent-backed news aggregation app that the “number two mobile content aggregator” in that country. It went public last year, and despite shedding most of its value while public, is still worth over $1 billion. (Crunchbase News coverage of the company’s financials here.)

And second, . Part of the empire in China, Jinri Toutiao is worth about $20 billion . ByteDance, Toutiao’s parent company, is best known in the United States for the success of its TikTok social application. led the $2 billion investment.

While China-based apps seem to have the highest valuations (read up on the for more on the country’s domestic media market), it’s not impossible to imagine the model (and, therefore, the success) working again. Perhaps SmartNews can pull it off.

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If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I am going to join a venture capital firm or some other investment vehicle, I could afford to pay the tip on lunch at Contonga. Maybe more.

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All that means is that there’s probably too much money in the Valley, and tech as a whole. We’re in overheated times, and there are cracks forming in the flanks of the bull cycle. Sure, there lots of strength in tech as well, but I think the balance is tipping back towards even.

Which is why ByteDance’s latest move is astounding. , an app and content-driven Chinese technology giant, is raising its own fund . Now, private companies raising a small fund to invest in their own platforms isn’t new. It’s something that companies large and small have done and still do.

Slack has one! Grab has one! . But ByteDance’s new fund is spectacular for its size. Here’s The Information’s report:

“China’s ByteDance […] is in talks to raise the equivalent of more than $1 billion for its first venture fund to invest in artificial intelligence and media content[.]”

The article goes on to note that the fund will be worth the US-equivalent of about $1.45 billion. ByteDance is going to put up 20 percent, while others will pony up the other 80 percent. Yes, billion-dollar venture funds are not new (they are simply part of the landscape now), but as far as yet-private unicorns, I think this would be the largest corporate venture effort I’ve ever seen.

Next question: How does a private company wind up with a nearly 1500 million dollar capital pool for disbursement into other private firms? Well, you a few months before from KKR and SoftBank and others.

So what we have here is the recycling of investment dollars through ByteDance and, then, partially into other companies. So ByteDance will have managed an equity exchange in which it took other people’s money, and used some of it to buy equity in other startups.

ByteDance is said to be worth $75 billion and has produced a lot of IPO chatter. But with a $1.45 billion vehicle, once it gets sorted out and presuming that it raises the full amount, the company will make headlines regardless of when its IPO lands.

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