Profits "in sight" for online news agency Storyful

Profits at Dublin-based online news agency Storyful are “firmly within sight”.

That is according to founder and CEO of Storyful Mark Little who was yesterday commenting on the firm’s 2012 financial performance that saw a doubling in revenues and a more than doubling in accumulated losses.

Abridged accounts just filed by Storyful Ltd with the Companies Office show that its accumulated losses increased by €1.8m from €1.19m to €3m in the 12 months to the end of December last.

The firm last year also received a further cash injection from investors that include RTÉ ‘Dragon’ Sean O’Sullivan of SOS Investments and serial internet entrepreneur, Ray Nolan, of €1.744m that resulted in shareholder funds totalling €5,053 at year end.

Former RTÉ presenter, Mr Little yesterday attributed the increased losses to investing in up-scaling the firm’s technology, editorial and commercial capability in 2012 that included catering “for the huge increase in demand for our news services and viral content which has ultimately led to our revenue growth”.

Mr Little said that the firm will more than double its revenues in 2013 and “expects to be cash positive by the end of 2013”.

A note attached to the accounts states that “the directors are satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken to bring about the company’s profitability”.

In an interview, Mr Little said: “Storyful is entering the most exciting period of its existence. Our team has worked really hard over the past three years to build a completely new business model for journalism. We have overcome big challenges along the way but are now realising our ambitions.”

The business of Storyful is to discover and verify the most valuable news content on social media platforms and deliver it to the biggest news brands in the world.

The firm’s client list includes BBC, Reuters, ABC News, Bloomberg, Channel Four, YouTube, Yahoo, Skype, Aljazeera, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Sky News and Google.

Mr Little said: “We have dramatically expanded the number and geographical spread of our client list. We now have customers from San Francisco to Tokyo and we work with top broadcasters, social platforms and newspaper groups.

“We also work with some leading tech brands and are selling content to leading TV productions companies and advertisers. We expect the client list to increase and diversify in the year ahead.”

The firm was established in Jan 2010 employing two and today employs 30.