Semafor to Buy Out Sam Bankman-Fried’s $10 Million Investment
Semafor, the information startup led by former Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin Smith and BuzzFeed Information founder Ben Smith, plans to purchase out a $10 million funding by disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, the most recent media agency to return cash from the chief of failed buying and selling platform FTX.
Key Takeaways
- Semafor follows fellow media retailers ProRepublica and Vox Media in returning funds from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
- The media outlet that was launched lower than three months in the past is now in search of new funds.
- Bankman-Fried is presently out on a $250 million bond that requires him to remain at his guardian’s house in California.
Elon Musk Slammed Semafor
Launched lower than three months in the past, Semafor got here underneath fireplace after the FTX meltdown when it revealed an article claiming Tesla CEO Elon Musk had requested Bankman-Fried for $100 million.
Musk denied the story, calling it “a lie” and asking, “How a lot of you does SBF personal?” Ben Smith responded by saying Semafor has lined SBF “aggressively” and all the time disclose his funding when writing about him. “Such as you and lots of others, we took and funding from him,” Smith tweeted.
Semafor Needs to Come Clear
Sam Bankman-Fried made investments in Semafor as a part of a $25 million funding spherical, in line with Crunchbase.Semafor, which describes on its web site its mission as bringing transparency to the information, is in search of new methods to lift cash. It goals to put the SBF funds right into a separate account till officers inform Semafor the place and the way the cash needs to be returned.
The Backside Line
Semafor is considered one of a number of media corporations that acquired funding from Bankman-Fried. For example, ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative information outlet, acquired $5 million from Sam Bankman-Fried’s household basis and has introduced returning the $1.6 million. Vox acquired $200,000 from SBF’s household. The Block’s CEO, Michael McCaffrey, needed to resign after failing to reveal a collection of loans from Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Analysis.
