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Fresco News is a Manhattan, New York-based technology platform that enables crowdsourced journalism by connecting mobile app users with media organizations for on-the-ground photos and videos of breaking events. The company functions as a budget wire service, allowing newsrooms to post specific coverage requests while compensating individual citizen contributors for their licensed content. The platform serves dozens of media outlets, securing strategic partnerships with major corporate customers such as The Associated Press and Fox. To support its operations, Fresco News raised $1.2 million in seed funding from prominent venture investors including Ashton Kutcher, Peter Thiel, and CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld. The enterprise rapidly scaled to over 50 employees by late 2016 before experiencing severe financial strain that resulted in at least 10 missed payroll periods. The organization was officially founded in 2014 by John Meyer.
Fresco News has raised $6.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Fresco News has raised $6.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Fresco News is a defunct technology company that developed a platform to crowdsource breaking news footage and photos from everyday users, empowering them to act as on-the-scene reporters for professional news organizations.[1][2] Its core product, the Newsroom Tool Suite including Fresco Dispatch, enabled newsrooms to create location-based assignments, notifying nearby app users to submit paid contributions, addressing resource gaps in local and rapid-response journalism.[1] The company served news outlets like The Associated Press, Media General, and Calkins Media, raising $7.32M total before shutting down (marked as "Dead" stage).[1]
(Note: Search results distinguish this from active companies like Fresco Cooks, a smart kitchen platform, and a Y Combinator construction AI firm; this profile focuses on Fresco News as specified.[1][3][7])
Fresco News was founded by CEO John Meyer, who launched the concept around 2014-2015 with an iPhone app for browsing breaking news and accepting paid assignments to contribute user-generated photos and videos.[1] The idea emerged from recognizing that local newsrooms often lacked resources to dispatch reporters quickly to remote or sudden events, like fires, allowing nearby users to fill the gap with compensated submissions.[1] Early traction included a seed round of $1.2M in 2015 from investors like CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld, MediaBistro's Laurel Touby, and others including Fresco Capital and Wavemaker Partners; the revamped app and tools gained adoption by dozens of news organizations.[1]
Fresco News rode the early 2010s wave of user-generated content platforms, akin to livestreaming and citizen journalism trends amplified by smartphones, timing perfectly with social media's rise for real-time event sharing.[1] Market forces like shrinking newsroom budgets and the demand for hyper-local, immediate visuals favored its model, influencing the ecosystem by pioneering paid crowdsourcing—prefiguring tools in modern apps like TikTok news or Twitter/X assignments.[1][2] Though now defunct, it highlighted scalable alternatives to legacy media infrastructure amid digital disruption.
Fresco News demonstrated viable crowdsourced journalism tech but ceased operations post-$7.32M funding, likely due to monetization challenges in a competitive, ad-reliant news space.[1] No revival signs exist as of late 2025; its legacy persists in evolved platforms blending UGC with AI verification. Trends like mobile video ubiquity and newsroom automation may inspire successors, but without adaptation, similar ventures risk the same fate—tying back to its core promise of democratized reporting, now absorbed into bigger tech ecosystems.
Fresco News has raised $6.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $5.0M Series A in April 2017.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2017 | $5M Series A | — | 7BC Venture Capital, Rubicon VC, Social Starts, Vayner RSE, Josh Porter, Kyle York | Announced |
| Sep 1, 2015 | $1M Seed | — | 7BC Venture Capital, ACME Capital, Album VC, Ambridge Capital, Brkfst Club, Catapult Capital, Defy Partners, DN Capital, Fifth Wall, FJ Labs, IVP, Mayfield, OurCrowd, Polygon Labs, Quiet Capital, Quona Capital, Raine Ventures, GIL Penchina, Rubicon VC, Science, Social Starts, Supernode Ventures, Underscore VC, Vayner RSE, Chung NG, Josh Porter, Kyle York, Oliver Jung, Shervin Pishevar, Jonathan Miller, Laurel Touby, Michael Jones, Reese Schonfeld, Ross Levinsohn, 1517 Fund, Fresco Capital, Social Starts, Wavemaker Partners | Announced |
Fresco News has raised $6.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Fresco News's investors include 7BC Venture Capital, Rubicon VC, Social Starts, Vayner RSE, Josh Porter, Kyle York, ACME Capital, Album VC, Ambridge Capital, Brkfst Club, Catapult Capital, Defy Partners.
