External workforce management startup, Lystable, has closed $11 million Series A round from Thiel’s Fund and Goldcrest Capital with participation from Spring Partners. Founded in the UK, Lystable has now reincorporated itself as a US company, with plans to relocate its headquarters to San Francisco.
Founded in 2014 by former Google designer Peter Johnston, the year-old startup provides software for companies that helps them communicate with, manage and pay, their freelance workforce and external service providers, which number around 53 million in the US and 9.6 million in the EU, according to the company.
“This phase is now one of growth. We have figured out a lot of nuances and worked to make our model repeatable and scalable with large companies. Securing this funding allows us to scale out sales and marketing and bring in a number of key senior hires on product and engineering,” said founder Peter Johnson.
The company said in a statement that the new funding will be used to push its operations in the US. As part of this US focus, it plans to expand its San Franscisco team to 35 people by this year end.
Valar Ventures’ James Fitzgerald and Spring Partners’ Leila Zegna have joined Lystable’s board of directors along with Adam Ross of Goldcrest Capital joining as a board observer.
“Legacy software is not equipped to deal with the growing freelancer economy,” added Valar’s Fitzgerald. “Lystable’s product solves a real pain point for enterprises who are managing an increasing number of freelancers and contractors. Their product is in another league compared with the incumbents.”
Lystable now caters to prominent clients like Google and The Economist with recent additions including Airbnb, MTV, and CNBC. Its enterprise software offering has attracted over 60 brands till date, and the start-up claims that it now manages more than 20,000 contractors and vendors every week.