REDEF

What REDEF does

REDEF is a New York-based, privately held content curation platform founded in 2013 by Jason Hirschhorn, former Chief Digital Officer of MTV Networks. The company operates five vertically-focused interest channels — MediaREDEF, FashionREDEF, SportsREDEF, MusicREDEF, and TechREDEF — delivering manually curated daily content mixes without algorithmic recommendation. Distribution spans a web platform (redef.com), an iOS mobile application, weekday email newsletters sent at 6:15 AM ET, and social feeds integrated with Twitter/X and Facebook. Adjacent product surfaces include Sets (themed story collections), Charts (trending content analytics), and Originals (company-produced editorial).

The underlying technology is explicitly human-driven editorial curation rather than machine learning. The platform differentiates itself through named curators who sequence and annotate content 'like DJs,' supported by Feedly as the feed-reading lifeline and Red Antler as brand design partner. The company's primary customer segments are media industry professionals, curious knowledge workers, and corporate executives seeking curated context and analysis beyond breaking news.

REDEF's business model is currently freemium with all core services offered free of charge. The Terms of Use explicitly reserve the right to introduce fees, but no paid tier has been disclosed. The company has raised a single $2.25M seed round in May 2014 led by Bloomberg Beta, with participation from The Chernin Group, Advancit Capital, Upfront Ventures, Greycroft Partners, and strategic angels including Mark Cuban, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and James Murdoch. Headcount remains in the 1-10 range, and the company has not disclosed revenue. Multiple curator departures in 2021 across the Music, Sports, and Fashion channels have put several verticals on hiatus, creating operational uncertainty.

Name

REDEF

Legal name

The REDEF Group, Inc.

Website

https://redef.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

REDEF is a New York-based curated content platform founded in 2013 that delivers human-edited daily interest mixes across Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, and Tech verticals via website, iOS app, and email newsletters to media professionals and knowledge workers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Content Curation

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Aggregation, Curation & RSS Platforms (BPAMAJAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Newsletter & Email Digest Aggregators (MPACAKAG), Topic/Interest-Based Content Discovery Apps (MPACAKAB)

Keywords

• Curated content platform
• Editorial newsletters
• Media curation
• Daily news digests
• Content discovery

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, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Newsletter Subscriptions: Daily curated email newsletters delivered to subscribers across multiple industry verticals. Currently free with future potential for paid services.
2. Platform Access: Access to REDEF.com website, iOS app, and curated content feeds across Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, and Tech channels.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

REDEF operates a curated digital content platform that delivers daily "interest remixes" across Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, and Tech verticals. Human editors hand-pick and sequence articles, links, and commentary — explicitly without algorithmic recommendation — and distribute them via the REDEF website, iOS app, daily email newsletters (every weekday at 6:15 AM ET), and social feeds on Twitter and Facebook. Original editorial commentary appears as "Originals," themed bundles appear as "Sets," and trending analytics appear as "Charts."

Product overview

REDEF is a curated content platform operating as a unified product with multiple distribution channels. The core offering consists of manually curated daily content mixes across five channels (Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, Tech) delivered through a website, iOS app, email newsletters, and social feeds. The platform also features Sets (themed content collections), Charts (trending content analytics), and Originals (REDEF-produced editorial). Notably, REDEF explicitly differentiates itself through human curation without algorithms, positioning as an 'interest remix' service rather than a news aggregator or algorithmic discovery engine.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• REDEF Website Primary web destination (redef.com) where visitors access curated content mixes across Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, and Tech verticals, along with themed Sets, trending Charts, and REDEF-produced Originals. Includes user accounts, archives, charts of popular items/shared content/authors/sources, and share tools.
• REDEF iOS App Native mobile application available through the Apple App Store, providing access to REDEF's curated content mixes across all five verticals on iOS devices.
• Daily Newsletters (MediaREDEF, FashionREDEF, SportsREDEF, MusicREDEF, TechREDEF) Daily email newsletters delivering hand-picked curated content to subscribers every weekday at 6:15 AM ET across five verticals — Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, and Tech.
• Social Feeds (Twitter and Facebook) Live-updating curated content feeds for each of the five channels (Media, Fashion, Sports, Music, Tech), surfaced on Twitter/X and Facebook with OAuth-based authentication and social-sharing capabilities.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Red AntlerminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrand and style agency that helped develop REDEF's brand identity and visual design.
• CODE AdvisorsminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerTalent agents listed under studio and tour support, providing talent representation services.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Flipboard: Topic-based content aggregation and discovery platform with editorial curation. Comparable to REDEF's interest-based channel model (Media, Tech, etc.) and feed-style presentation, though Flipboard is more visual and algorithmic.
• Puck News: Paid newsletter covering media, tech, entertainment, and culture verticals. Closely comparable in vertical structure (Media, Tech, Sports, Fashion, Music mirrors Puck's vertical coverage) and professional insider audience.
• Morning Brew: Daily curated business/newsletter franchise delivering to millions of professional subscribers. Direct peer in the curated daily newsletter format targeting knowledge workers, though Morning Brew operates at significantly larger scale and is more business-news focused.
• Axios: Smart Brevity-format news and newsletter media company covering media, tech, and business verticals. Directly comparable in audience (media/tech professionals), daily newsletter distribution, and vertical editorial coverage.
• The Information: Subscription tech and media industry newsletter/breaking news outlet. Overlaps REDEF's media/tech audience and curated industry insider format, though operates as paid investigative journalism.
• SmartNews: AI-driven news aggregation app surfacing stories across verticals. Comparable as a content discovery/aggregation platform for general consumers, but algorithmically curated rather than manually edited like REDEF.
• TheSkimm: Daily newsletter for professionals distilling news and culture into a digestible format. Comparable as a curated daily newsletter targeting busy professionals, though Skimm leans toward general news vs. REDEF's vertical industry mix.

Emerging players

• Garbage Day: Newsletter covering internet culture and media industry. Comparable in tone, audience (media/tech-curious professionals), and newsletter-first distribution model — overlapping with REDEF's MediaREDEF channel.

Others

• Feedly: RSS feed reader and content aggregation tool — and an existing REDEF technology partner. Comparable as a content aggregation platform serving knowledge workers, though Feedly is a utility while REDEF is a curated editorial product.

Broad incumbents

• Substack: Newsletter and subscription publishing platform enabling individual writers. Adjacent in newsletter distribution infrastructure; REDEF could either build on Substack or compete with it for newsletter-driven media professional attention.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/redef

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors5 records

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about REDEF