Indonesian news app Kurio raises $5m from Japanese counterpart Gunosy

[Update 17 March 2016: We are added additional information about Gunosy market cap.]

Indonesian news reader app Kurio today announced it just closed a US$5 million series B round from its Japanese counterpart Gunosy.

It’s part of Gunosy’s efforts to expand to Southeast Asia.

Gunosy listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year, and it now has a market cap of US$107 million—down from US$263 million market cap.

The investment in Kurio is part of its efforts to expand to Southeast Asia. Indonesia is obviously a good starting point, given its 100 million internet users and fast-growing smartphone adoption.

Kurio founder David Wayne Ika says the companies will share their know-how and resources to dominate the market. “Gunosy’s experience with big data and machine learning are important lessons for our engineering team to grow.”

Founded in 2014, Kurio has tie-ups with hundreds of online publishers in Indonesia. The team declined to say how many active users the app has.

Kurio’s closest rivals in Indonesia are BaBe and GNews, while international news apps like Google Play Newsstand and Apple News are indirect competitors.

Prior to Gunosy, Kurio received its series A funding from Japan’s Cyberagent Ventures. Indonesian VC GDP Ventures also backs Kurio through Merah Putih Incubator.