Investors in the Indian Legal Tech Space

Posted 2 years ago by Prolawgue

The Legal Tech industry is booming with innovations, new technologies, and profits. Naturally, it has also caught the eye of a number of investors from across the globe. Legal tech companies saw more than $1 billion of investment in 2021, which was a stark increase since 2020, which saw a total investment of $510 million.

Globally, there’s LegalZoom’s IPO share price spiking almost 40 percent on Day One of trading; DISCO’s similar IPO numbers (up 28 percent); Silver Lake investing in e-discovery software firm Relativity at Slack-esque multiples; and Ironcladsecuring $100 million from big investors eyeing SaaS-like returns. (Source: Crunchbase)

Prolawgue looks inwards, at the Indian Legal Tech space to better understand the active investors in this space.  

 

Waterbridge Ventures 

Waterbridge Ventures is a venture capital firm based in New Delhi. It was founded by Kheterpal and Ashish Jain in 2016. Anjali Sosale joined the firm in 2020, as a partner becoming the only female in a leadership role. The firm has invested in popular startups such as Unacademy, CityMall, Atlan, Magicpin, etc. According to Ashish Jain, the firm has developed a “top-down sector thesis” driven approach that has allowed Waterbridge to invest in early-stage startups that have the potential to disrupt the market. In the Legal Tech space, Waterbridge is a lead investor in MyAdvo, and has invested twice in LegitQuest. 

  • MyAdvo is a highly consumer-centric legal tech company that focuses on lawyer discovery, standardised pricing, and case lifecycle support. It was founded in 2015, by IIT and Kellogg Alumni, Anil Bains and Kushal Bhagat. 
  • LegitQuest is an AI-driven legal research database. It was founded in 2017 by Himanshu Puri, Karan Kalia, and Rohit Shukla. Headquartered in Delhi, LegiQuest was initially funded by the revered lawyer, Mr. Ram Jethmalani. 

 

Microsoft Accelerator

Microsoft Accelerator is a global startup empowering business, that propels innovation and growth of startups through funding, resources, expertise, tools, and knowledge. This 14 week-long program helps in CEO coaching, talent recruitment, culture, network building, etc. An accelerator is starkly different from an incubator. An accelerator program will help your company upskill, when you already have an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or a prototype, while an incubator will help you translate a concept into a market-ready product. Microsoft Accelerator, Bangalore, has invested in legal tech companies such as Vakilsearch and Surukam. 

  • Founded in 2012, Vakilsearch is a legal technology-driven platform, that provides services that include incorporation, government registrations & filings, accounting, documentation, and annual compliances. In 2018, they launched Steno, a virtual stenographer, a web-based platform. 
  • Surukam, founded in 2014, by Krishna Sundaresan, is a next-generation artificial intelligence-driven platform that helps corporate teams automate their workflow.

 

Singapore Angel Network (SGAN)

SGAN (Singapore Angel Network) is a venture-capital firm that specializes in early-stage investments. It is based out of Singapore and is a subsidiary of the Thakral Group of Companies. They specialize in providing early-stage risk capital and access to the Global Thakral network that spans across 36 countries, along with managerial expertise. SGAN has invested in popular enterprises such as Vista Rooms, JustDoc, Vebbler, SARVA, MyCaptian etc. In the Legal Tech space in India, Bangalore-based Contract Management company, SpotDraft has received capital funding from SGAN. 

 

500 Startups 

500 Startups is a global venture capital firm that invests in fast-growing technology companies. 500 Startups has backed over 6,000 founders representing more than 2,500 companies operating in 77 countries. They boast a portfolio that includes 41 companies valued at over a billion dollars, and 125 companies valued above $100 million. Some of their extremely popular investments include Canva, Udemy, Gitlab, Ironclad, Talkdesk, intercom, etc.

  • In the Indian Legal Tech Space, they have invested in SpotDraft. 

 

TitanCapital 

TitanCapital is a global venture capital and private equity firm that invests in the entrepreneur and their vision instead of the product. Their portfolio includes 150+ companies in India and the US across consumer internet, direct-to-consumer brands, SaaS, AI, and Computer Vision. TitanCapital has invested in Snapdeal, Mamaearth, Ola, UrbanCompany, Razorpay, MetaMap, LabelBox, etc. In the Legal tech space, they have invested in Legistify. 

  • Legistify is a technology-driven solution that tackles the lack of legal awareness, and accessible legal aid, through its extensive network of legal professionals and experts. 

 

FasterCapital 

FasterCapital is an online incubator and accelerator that provides investment in a “work-per-equity” model. They either provide technical development per equity or business development per equity. They invest in startups from different industries (FinTech, EduTech, HealthTech, Entertainment, Media, Software, E-commerce, Blockchain, and others) and stages (idea stage, MVP, Seed stage, Series A, and others). INK INDIA LEGAL raised $50k from FasterCaptial in a Pre-Seed funding round. 

  • Ink India Legal, founded in 2017 by Gaurav Sharma is a legal tech platform that provides legal and business support systems. [As of 7 March 2022, Ink India Legal’s website is broken.]

 

IdeaTree Inc

IdeaTree Inc is a hybrid incubator-accelerator program, focused on providing investment, tools and mentoring to startups. IdeaTree is based in Los Angeles, California. IdeaTree invested $250k in mVakil. 

  • mVakil, founded in 2013 by Akash OP Aurora and Naveen Khanna, is a legal tech platform that helps users track, share, and search legal court cases and proceedings in real-time. 

 

GenNext Ventures 

GenNext Ventures is a venture capital and private equity fund, sponsored by Reliance Industries. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The fund invests in innovation technologies across India and abroad in various sectors, such as health, Edtech, M2M sectors, Big Data etc. GenNext has invested in the Venture round of LegalDesk. 

  • LegalDesk is a “do-it-yourself” online document-making platform. It helps users customize legal documents online, which can then either be downloaded or delivered on the doorstep, on a stamp paper. 

 

MGA Ventures 

MGA Ventures is a venture capital, LLP Firm, that focuses on public and private equity investments, business collaborations, and venture debt opportunities in India and abroad. It is run by the Ashra family and invests in public market funds, private market funds and unlisted enterprises. Very recently, in February 2022, they invested in an Online Dispute Resolution Platform, PreSolv360. 

  • PreSolv360, founded by Bhaven Shah, Namita Shah, and Aman Sanghavi is a technology-driven platform, that allows enterprises to resolve their disputes out of court. PreSolv360 has also been incubated by the leading Indian law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM)’s incubator, Prarambh. 

 

Google for Startup Accelerator (GFSA)

GFSA invests in growth-stage startups with demonstrable traction, scalable product, a defensible growth model, and leveraging technologies. GFSA provides selected startups with three months of equity-free support, marketing, design, and leadership training. It also provides that with advanced technical project partnerships and access to google’s network of experts.

  • In its fifth cohort in India, GFSA selected LegitQuest, from the Indian Legal Tech industry.

 

Kalaari Captial 

Kalaari Capital is a venture capital firm, that invests in early-stage technology-driven startups, focusing across seed and series-A stages. Kalaari backs passionate investors, with knowledge, access, company building and thoughtful deliberation. It was founded in 2011, by Vani Kola and is head-quatered in Bangalore, India. Kalaari has made 202 investments, with 25 exits and 1 diversity investment.

  • In the Indian legal tech space, it has invested in Vakilsearch. 

 

LetsVenture 

LetsVenture was conceptualised in 2013. It is an online platform, based out of Singapore and makes investment easy for investors, and fund-raising simpler for start-up founders. It was founded by serial entrepreneur and investor, Shanti Mohan, and tech-leader and innovator, Sanjay Singh. LetsVenture invests in early and seed stage startups. The platform also allows startups to connect with the right people, through its vast network, and provide mentoring to those who seek assistance. LetsVenture has made 173 investments till date, which amount to a total of $650K. With 2 diversity investments, and 46 lead investments LetsVenture has had 11 exits.

  • In the Indian Legal tech space, it has invested in MyAdvo, a lawyer discovery platform.

 

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