Smashing, an AI-driven news aggregation app, is officially shutting down, primarily due to its failure to scale quickly enough to sustain operations. Launched by Otis Chandler, the app aimed to curate diverse content like news articles and social media posts based on user interest. Despite initial funding of $3.4 million and a workforce of seven, the company acknowledged in its closure announcement that it could not achieve the necessary growth. The closure echoes the fate of other similar ventures, such as the AI news app Artifact, indicating challenges in this sector.
We simply didn't grow fast enough to keep going. We weren't able to scale it into a sustainable product.
The app let users follow their interests, submit content, and vote on suggested content to indicate relevance.
Smashing had raised $3.4 million in funding from True Ventures, Blockchange, Offline Ventures, Advancit Capital, Power of N Ventures, and several angel investors.
Smashing's closure comes after Instagram's co-founders shut down their AI-powered news app Artifact last year.
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