Chris Morton
Co-founder of the fashion shopping platform Lyst
Chris Morton is the co-founder of Lyst, the London based fashion shopping platform that aggregates products from tens of thousands of brands and stores. He led the company as chief executive from 2010 to 2022 and then became executive chairman; in 2025 Lyst was acquired by Japan's ZOZO.
| Role | Co-founder of Lyst |
|---|---|
| Chief executive | 2010 to 2022 |
| Then | Executive chairman from September 2022 |
| Organisation | Lyst, London (part of ZOZO since 2025) |
| Education | MA Physics and Philosophy, Cambridge |
Who is Chris Morton?
Chris Morton is a British-based technology entrepreneur and the co-founder of Lyst, one of the best known fashion search and discovery platforms. Instead of browsing stores one by one, Lyst lets shoppers search and buy across a very large catalogue of brands and retailers in one place. The company says it connects more than 160 million shoppers a year with over 27,000 brands and stores.
Career
Morton studied physics and philosophy at Cambridge University, graduating with an MA, and was a DERA scholar. Before founding Lyst he worked in technology research and venture capital:
- Manager at QinetiQ, the European defence technology and research organisation
- Associate at Benchmark Capital (2007 to 2010), focusing on consumer internet
- Associate at Balderton Capital
He co-founded Lyst in January 2010 and served as co-founder and chief executive until September 2022, when he became executive chairman. Emma McFerran is the company's chief executive. In April 2025 ZOZO, Inc., the operator of Japan's largest online fashion mall, agreed to acquire Lyst for a reported 119 million pounds, making it a wholly owned subsidiary that continues to operate from London as a standalone business. Morton is also an angel investor.
Influence on the fashion business
Lyst built a single shopping layer on top of a fragmented market, bringing together products from more than 27,000 brands and stores. That aggregation is what made it attractive as an acquisition: ZOZO described the acquisition as the cornerstone of its international expansion, combining Lyst's Western reach with its own position in Japan.
Chris Morton and technology
Lyst presents itself as a platform that combines artificial intelligence with fashion intelligence to help shoppers find products across the market. Matching, categorising and ranking millions of products from thousands of sources is at its core a data problem, and Morton's background in physics and technology investing shaped Lyst as a technology company rather than a retailer. After the acquisition ZOZO said it would invest in Lyst's AI-driven discovery features and integrate its own sizing and fit technology.
Why it matters
Morton's work with Lyst shows how search, data and machine learning can become a distribution channel in their own right. As AI shopping assistants and agentic commerce develop, platforms that already understand product data across the whole market are well placed, which makes Lyst's history a useful reference for brands deciding where their products should be discoverable.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Lyst?
Lyst was co-founded in 2010 by Chris Morton, who led it as chief executive until September 2022 before becoming executive chairman. The platform aggregates fashion products from more than 27,000 brands and stores.
Who owns Lyst?
In April 2025 the Japanese online fashion company ZOZO, Inc. agreed to acquire Lyst for a reported 119 million pounds. Lyst continues to operate as a London-based standalone business within the ZOZO group.