Cloudsmith IT firm raises £18m from US investors

Belfast IT company Cloudsmith has raised $23m (£18.2m) from US investors which it will use to grow its workforce and invest in product development.

The funding round was led by California-based TCV, whose notable investments include Facebook and Airbnb.

Cloudsmith was founded by Alan Carson and Lee Skillen who worked for the New York Stock Exchange technology operation in Belfast.

The firm's technology lets companies easily update and send software securely around their business using the cloud.

It is especially useful for large enterprises with hundreds of teams and thousands of software developers worldwide.

The investment is Cloudsmith's second major fundraising following an £11m deal in 2021.

That helped the company grow from around 20 employees to almost 100 with the aim of getting to 145 this year.

Around 75% of the firm's revenues come from US-based customers.

Its CEO Glenn Weinstein said: "We are lucky to have really good cyber security talent here in Belfast – that has proven to be critical to Cloudsmith's growth.

"Today's announcement means Cloudsmith has created something very special right here in Belfast that serves the world.

"Belfast is a great place for tech start-ups and I do see a strong connection between Silicon Valley and what's happening right here in the city."

Skillen said: "Alan and I remain deeply committed to making Cloudsmith the definitive global leader in software supply chain security."

Morgan Gerlak, partner at TCV, said they invested in the firm as they believed in its vision to "become the backbone of modern software supply chains".

New York-based Insight Partners and existing investors also participated in the funding round.