Irish-founded start-up Lystable raises $10m, to open Belfast office

Lystable, a San Francisco-headquartered start-up founded by Irish man Peter Johnson, has raised a further $10 million (€9.27 million) and announced plans to open an office in Belfast.

The company, which is behind a freelancer collaboration app used by in publishing, fashion, content marketing, and video production, raised the additional money in a funding round led by Valar Ventures, a company owned by PayPal cofounder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.

The latest expansion round, brings Lystable’s Series A funding to $21 million, after it closed an $11 million funding round last June.

New investors

Other funding participants include earlier investors Max Levchin's SciFi VC (formerly HVF Investments), Kindred Capital and Goldcrest Capital, as well as new investors Glynn Capital and Wilmont Ventures.

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Overall, the company has raised $25 million since it was founded by Mr Johnson in London in 2014, who hails from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.

Lystable streamlines freelancer collaboration with a free app for managing profiles, assigning work, tracking invoices and making payments. Customers include the Economist, Expedia, NY Daily News, Airbnb, ESPN, CNBC, IDEO, and Google.

Founding members

“The additional capital will be used to continue to expand our team in the US and specifically to launch a major new product later in 2017,” said Mr Johnson, the company’s chief executive.

Mr Johnson is one of the founding members of the recently announced Ormeau Baths collaborative work space in Belfast and he confirmed that Lystable will be the first tenant in the site, which is due to open in May.

It is anticipated that Lystable’s Belfast office, which will offer customer and client support, will employ up to 10 staff.