AI Startup newsrooms.ai Acquires Innovation Media Outlet Trending Topics
The AI startup newsrooms.ai has acquired Trending Topics, Austria's leading tech media outlet founded by Jakob Steinschaden and Bastian Kellhofer, which has become a fixture in the European world of startups and tech disruption since its launch a decade ago. The combination of AI technology and publishing expertise creates a uniquely European company poised to define how content is created and distributed in the age of AI. The purchase price has not been disclosed.
newsrooms.ai was incubated within the Trending Topics media house and spun off in 2024 with its own developer team and investor Hermann Futter (CEO of the Compass Group, also involved in KickScale and Jentis). Under the leadership of CEO Erek Stoisser, AI-driven Software as a Service (SaaS) for automated content production based on modern LLMs was developed to market readiness for media houses and corporate communications.
At the core of newsrooms.ai, under the technical leadership of CTO Matteo Rosoli, is "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO) — the optimisation of online content for AI search engines and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity, with a commitment to the highest language quality, purely European data processing, and custom stylistic profiles for media houses and corporate clients.
All-in-One AI for Communications
Dozens of AI newsrooms are already active for prominent pilot customers in both media and corporate sectors. Even before the official launch, more than 1,000 articles per month were generated using the tools. The roadmap includes expanding services into audio, image, and video, as well as personalised AI morning briefings and Predictive Communication Intelligence (PCI). The vision is for newsrooms.ai to become the all-in-one communications platform that covers everything from information sourcing to content production, publishing, and analytics.
Trending Topics will continue its successful coverage of the tech industry under its new owner newsrooms.ai — with a steadily growing focus on the AI sector and as one of the first media outlets worldwide to be significantly co-produced by AI. Founders Jakob Steinschaden and Bastian Kellhofer will remain on board, become shareholders in newsrooms.ai, and play key roles on the founding team in product development, strategy, and sales.
Voices on the Acquisition
"The technology behind newsrooms.ai fascinates me. It demonstrates in impressive fashion what the future of publishing will look like. That is my personal reason for believing in the newsrooms.ai team and investing in the company." — Hermann Futter, Investor
"AI is the third great disruption of the 21st-century media world, after search and social. We want to be at the forefront of this evolution." — Bastian Kellhofer, Co-founder of newsrooms.ai and Trending Topics
"Generative AI is not just a helpful add-on — it is the new foundation of digital communications. newsrooms.ai combined with Trending Topics under one roof is a killer combination." — Jakob Steinschaden, Co-founder
"Efficiency can be bought. Great language is priceless. We want to do our part to ensure that Europe builds its own AI infrastructure." — Erek Stoisser, CEO of newsrooms.ai