LawtechUK puts focus on investment in legal tech

Posted on09 October 2024

As it reveals UK-founded lawtechs secure £110m investment

LawtechUK is responding to the growing interest in and demand for legal tech investment by focusing more on this topic in its upcoming events and programmes. These include an Investment Event on 15 October and new fundraising content in its popular Lawtech Fundamentals and Lawtech Scaler programmes.

LawtechUK’s Ecosystem Tracker, which is building information on the state of lawtech has released new data which shows:

There has been significant investment in UK lawtech since the Ecosystem Tracker was launched at the start of 2024 amounting to just over £110m (a few have undisclosed increases)
23 UK-founded ventures (excluding any acquired lawtechs) have increased their funding/investment this year

“There have been some fantastic investment success stories in 2024 including Genie AI (£10.15m), Xapien (£8m) and WordsmithAI (£3.94m), to name just a few. We want to ensure this success continues and investment increases in the years ahead” says Beth Fellner, Director, Legal Geek. “Our event last October helped kickstart interest and this year’s event is designed to build on that.”

Investment Event 15 October

This free event will bring together investors and founders to highlight the opportunity to invest in UK legal tech, showcasing the current lawtech market in the UK, opportunities to invest and case study examples. This event provides an opportunity to learn about the lawtech landscape, gain a detailed understanding of the UK lawtech market size, growth potential, and investment avenues.

Speakers include Anthony Rose (Founder & CEO, SeedLegals) and Robert Walsh (Managing Partners, QVentures) and there will also be a panel discussion chaired by Sarah Hill (Senior Manager at Fuse, A&O Shearman) which will include Georgie Candy (VC Associate, PROfounders Capital) and Kim Simmonds (Founder of Law365 and Cloud Contracts 365).

Case study founders who will be explaining· their lawtech companies include Rafie Faruq (Founder, GenieAI), Danae Shell (CEO & Founder, Valla), Chris Green (CEO & Founder, Xapien) and Dia Thanki (Founder & CEO, Alchemy Machines).

The event will appeal to investors looking to explore and invest in the lawtech sector and entrepreneurs and innovators in the legal and tech industries. It will also benefit legal professionals interested in technological advancements and anyone interested in learning about the future of legal technology.

LawtechUK has also included more investment focus in its upcoming programmes. “We are very much responding to the demand we see in the market. Almost 30% of the UK lawtechs that have acquired funding have been involved in a LawtechUK programme. This a great result and one we want to ensure continues” Beth Fellner, Director, Legal Geek.

Lawtech Scaler is the programme for lawtech startup founders with a product in the market, looking to take their business to the next level. Lawtech Scaler is a dynamic and collaborative programme comprising ten interactive online workshops. Two of these workshops, Money & Operations and Investment and Pitching and Networking have been revised to include more depth and detail.

Lawtech Scaler will take place between 14 January and 25 March 2025 and applications are now open (closing on 5 December).

"Startup programs like Lawtech Scaler are invaluable, because they enable companies to share ideas and derisk strategy at a much faster rate than operating alone. Throughout Genie AI's 7 year history, the incubators and networks we have been a part of have been integral to our success." Says Rafie Faruq, CEO, GenieAI.

Lawtech Fundamentals the self-paced, online course for the earliest stage of a startup, has included a new module: Funding a Lawtech Startup. Brian Liu, co-founder of Legal Zoom and a LawtechUK Panel member who was one of the speakers at the Lawtech Investment event in October 2023, has written the introduction to the module which covers how to know when you’re ready for funding; how to attract funding; how to prepare for funding and how to accept the right funding.