Roca News

What Roca News does

RocaNews is a privately held, non-partisan digital media company founded in 2020 in Washington, D.C. by three co-founders, targeting Gen Z (18–25) and younger millennials (26–35) who are disengaged from traditional partisan news media. The company operates a multi-platform distribution strategy centered on four surfaces: Instagram QuickCards that compress full news stories into swipeable slide formats; a gamified mobile app (Duolingo-inspired) on iOS with freemium premium features; a YouTube channel featuring on-the-ground reporting; and a paid Substack newsletter branded "We The 66." The platform also retains the River news app acquired in January 2022, which was positioned as the technological foundation for an AI- and Web3-powered social news product.

Name

Roca News

Legal name

RocaNews

Website

https://rocanews.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

RocaNews is a digital media company serving Gen Z and younger millennials with non-partisan news via Instagram QuickCards, a gamified mobile app, YouTube reporting, and a paid Substack newsletter. Founded in 2020 in Washington, D.C., it reaches 2M+ readers and reached $1M ARR and profitability in late 2024.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital News Media

NAICS

Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (51621), Broadcasting and Content Providers (516)

akta.pro primary industry

News & Current Affairs Aggregators (MPACAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Newsletter Publishing Platforms (MPACAIAA), Newsletter & Email Digest Aggregators (MPACAKAG)

Keywords

• Social news platform
• Mobile news app
• Newsletter publishing
• Digital news media
• Video journalism

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. App Premium Subscriptions: Freemium mobile app model where approximately 35% of users pay for premium features. The company reached $1m in annualised recurring revenue in November 2024 and achieved profitability in October 2024.
2. Newsletter Subscriptions: We The 66 newsletter with over 1,000 paid subscribers in its first month, generating subscription revenue from premium newsletter content.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

RocaNews operates a non-partisan digital media platform that delivers news content to Gen Z and younger millennials across multiple channels, including a gamified mobile app with premium subscription features, Instagram QuickCards that tell full news stories in swipeable visual format, the paid We The 66 newsletter on Substack, and a YouTube channel with on-the-ground video reporting. The platform uses AI and Web3 technology to power its social news experience and monetizes through freemium subscriptions and newsletter subscriptions.

Product overview

RocaNews is a non-partisan media company founded in 2020 by three co-founders in Washington, D.C., operating a multi-platform news distribution strategy targeting Gen Z and younger millennials. The core product portfolio consists of a gamified mobile news app (RocaNews App), Instagram QuickCards for social distribution, the We The 66 newsletter via Substack, and a YouTube channel for video reporting. The company also acquired the River news app to enhance its social news capabilities using AI and Web3 technology. The platform reached profitability in 2024, serving over 2 million regular readers with approximately 75% based in the US.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• We The 66 newsletter: Newsletter publication by RocaNews

Products and services

• RocaNews Gamified News App Mobile news application for iOS (and Android via Google Play) with gamified mechanics that make daily news consumption engaging and habit-forming. Available freemium with paid premium features; approximately 35% of users pay for premium. Targets Gen Z and younger millennials who prefer mobile-first, visually engaging news over traditional formats.
• Instagram QuickCards Proprietary visual storytelling format on Instagram that delivers full news stories in swipeable slide cards. Functions as the company's top-of-funnel acquisition channel for Gen Z and younger millennial audiences.
• We The 66 Newsletter Paid newsletter published via Substack that delivers news content and analysis directly to subscribers. Builds a direct reader relationship and generates recurring subscription revenue beyond the app.
• RocaNews YouTube Channel Video news channel on YouTube featuring on-the-ground reporting and longer-form journalism, extending the RocaNews brand into video content for younger audiences.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2 million+ regular readers with 75% US-based audience
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• River (news app)minorOthers · 19 January 2022RocaNews acquired the news app River as part of its strategy to develop a social news platform. This acquisition was funded by the $4.4 million seed round and aimed to integrate River's technology into RocaNews' AI and Web3-powered social news vision.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Tangle (newsletter): Tangle is an independent, non-partisan news summary newsletter that presents both sides of major stories to younger news-fatigued readers; directly comparable to RocaNews' non-partisan brand positioning and newsletter format.

Direct peers

• NowThis: NowThis is a digital-first news publisher producing short-form social video and visual explainers targeted at Gen Z and millennials on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube — directly overlapping RocaNews' QuickCards and YouTube formats and the same younger-skewing audience.
• Vox Media: Vox is a digital-first news and commentary publisher targeting younger, digitally-native readers with explanatory journalism, podcasts, and newsletters — comparable to RocaNews in mission (accessible, non-partisan-leaning news) and product surface (newsletter + digital).
• Morning Brew: Morning Brew is a newsletter-first media company for younger professionals with a freemium/paid model and high engagement; highly comparable to RocaNews on revenue model, audience demographic, and newsletter-led growth motion.
• The Daily Wire: The Daily Wire is a digitally-native, ideologically-positioned news and entertainment company producing short-form social video and commentary aimed at younger conservative audiences; comparable to RocaNews in social-first production model and target demographic, though opposite in political positioning.
• The Skimm: The Skimm is a newsletter-led daily news digest targeted at millennial women, monetized via subscriptions and advertising; directly comparable to RocaNews' We The 66 newsletter and the company's broader thesis of digestible, bias-aware news for younger audiences.
• Vice Media: Vice targets Gen Z and millennials with digital-first, social-native news and documentary-style reporting across web, YouTube, and social — overlapping RocaNews in audience, format, and brand-led non-traditional-news positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Axios: Axios is a digital-first national news outlet producing short, structured news coverage and the Axios HQ newsletter platform; comparable to RocaNews in the smart-brief format and digital-first, non-partisan orientation toward professional readers.

Others

• Substack: Substack is the newsletter publishing platform RocaNews uses to distribute We The 66; relevant as both a distribution partner and as an ecosystem competitor that enables individual writers to monetize non-partisan and ideologically diverse newsletters directly.
• Duolingo: Duolingo is the gamified mobile-app consumer product RocaNews explicitly cites as the inspiration for its news app's engagement loop; relevant as a comparable reference for gamified consumer app design, retention, and freemium conversion mechanics.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@rocanews
• Instagraminstagram.com/ridethenews

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Roca News