Beijing (PingWest)—News Break today announced it has closed a $115 million round in Series C funding led by Francisco Partners, making it one of the first new unicorns of 2021.

The investment comes as the Mountain View-headquartered news app is experiencing greater than three times year-over-year user growth, reaching 12 million daily active users.

The new funding will allow the news app to significantly increase its investments in the local-content ecosystem — both in the US and for the first time, internationally — making vital local news and information more easily accessible and abundantly available to people everywhere. 

Also, the unicorn said it plan to substantially expand its leadership, business, product, and engineering teams in 2021.

News Break has previously raised more than $36 million from investors including IDG Capital, who have also participated in this latest round.

The company was founded in 2015 by ex-Yahoo executive Jeff Zheng, with Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as Advisor. News Break launched its iOS and Android apps in 2016. In 2020, Harry Shum, former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Research at Microsoft, joined News Break as Chairman of the Board.