The company was founded in 2013 as Haystack TV by Daniel Barreto and Ish Harshawat. The two software engineers said they both found it difficult to watch news content on TV without a cable subscription and decided to create an app to fill that void. Barreto and Harshawat first launched the app in 2014 on
iOS and
Android mobile platforms with funding from Zorlu Ventures, the
National Association of Broadcasters and
Stanford's StartX Fund. When Haystack News first launched, it was initially focusing on national news content but by May 2019, the company announced it was utilizing clips from more than 200 local TV stations. In May 2020, the company rebranded from Haystack TV to Haystack News and launched an interactive
news ticker on its app. In November 2020, Haystack added
live streaming news channels to its platform, competing with similar OTT news apps like
NewsON and
Local Now. == Platforms ==