Investment brings jobs at Antrim firm Texthelp

Texthelp is investing in staff and new product development to underpin its ambitious sales growth strategy.

With around half of the roles already in place, the firm is well positioned to take advantage of its growth strategy in overseas software exports, particularly in North America and the Asia Pacific region.

The products sell to both the education and corporate market sectors to help support people who have difficulty reading and writing, and also those for whom English is not their first language.

During a visit to the company to hear about its plans, Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell said: “Texthelp is a highly innovative technology company that has built its success on investment in research and development and a strong export focus.

“This year it marks its 20th anniversary and the business is pushing forward to achieve more sales in more markets with more products.

“The company is expanding its portfolio of products to enable it to target the rapidly growing English Language Learning market and therefore requires additional staff with new skillsets.

“Invest Northern Ireland has offered the company £245,000 of support to help boost its workforce as well as a research and development grant of over £62,000 towards product innovation.

“The new jobs will carry salaries that are well above the Northern Ireland private sector median and will potentially contribute £1million annually to the economy.”

Texthelp’s product portfolio includes its world renowned ‘Read&Write’ software which is seeing exponential growth, strengthened by its easy-to-use Google Chrome extension which alone has surpassed four million users in less than two years of being on the market.

Other products include the reading software application ‘Fluency Tutor’; ‘Browsealoud’, a digital engagement and inclusion toolbar for websites, as well as ‘Speechstream’, a product sold to international publishers and content providers.

It has a strong presence in across North America and has also sold its products and expertise in Europe, South America, South Africa and has recently invested in a new office in Australia to cover the Asia Pacific region.

“This investment is helping to drive substantial growth in the business and help us win new customers and increase sales.,” said CEO Mark McCusker.

“Invest NI’s support over many years has been immensely important, helping us to grow and, in particular, to achieve export success.”