LinkedIn challenger with NI founder nets $13m from A16z, Collisons and more

Peter Johnston’s Polywork has closed a Series A round that attracted investment from big names in Silicon Valley. Business-focused social network Polywork, founded by Peter Johnston who is originally from Carrickfergus, has closed a $13m Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z). Joining A16z was a star-studded list of investors including Stripe founders John and Patrick Collison, Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover and GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Existing investors Goldcrest Capital and Caffeinated Capital returned, and Bungalow Capital and 20VC were among the other participants. Founded in 2020, part of Polywork’s draw is its founder; Johnston is a Google alum who set up freelancer-management software outfit Kalo (previously known as Lystable) in 2015. The start-up graduated from Techstars in the UK, attracted repeated investment from Valar Ventures, and built a client base that included Google, Airbnb and The Economist. During the pandemic, however, Kalo struggled and Johnston made the decision to shutter it. Polywork launched in beta in April of this year and held a $3.5m seed round in May. Observers and early users have described it as a blend of LinkedIn and Twitter, and Johnston has made clear his desire…
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