Legl: What is it?
While public software-as-a-service companies' valuations have been hammered recently as investors turn their backs on the sector amid a wider post-pandemic tech stock sell-off, SaaS startups still need to raise capital to scale their businesses — or, at the very least, they hope to be able to do so on reasonable terms despite the wider market turmoil. For example, Legl, a SaaS startup based in London that sells tools to law firms looking to digitize processes and automate workflows in areas like client onboarding, payments, and compliance to support a more modern customer experience, announced the close of an $18 million Series B round today, just over a year after raising a $7 million Series A round. Several technology investors led the Series B, including current investor Octopus Ventures (which also led the Series A); however, Legl did not disclose the round's other supporters.
How did Legl raise $18M?
The business claims it has increased its customer base from roughly 100 UK-based legal firms in March 2021 to 170+ presently, including 20 of the country's Top 200 firms. The Series B will be used to kick-off planned worldwide expansion, concentrating on areas where its UK customer base has operations and investing in product development and recruiting. Law firms worldwide have the chance to manage their operations in a more contemporary, efficient, revenue-generating, and client-friendly manner. They are collaborating with Legl's customer base to begin extending its foreign offices, which span numerous continents. They've spent the last year building the underlying CRM that allows law firms to not just automate traditionally manual business procedures across the client lifecycle but also to better understand their customer base. They've tapped into Legl's key skills in risk management, compliance, and payments and finance, allowing law firms to enhance cash flow and improve the customer experience while also touching on their regulated business operations. With the additional capital, they'll be able to extend their workflow-driven approach to managing company operations, particularly on how law firms can create quicker revenue, better and more risk-free financial management, and a better client experience. In a downturn, law firms are counter-cyclical; thus, they don't suffer as much as regular corporations. But, regardless of market situations, Legl saw that when they demonstrated growing value to law firms and improved fundamental business processes, they became more valued, not less. Legal and compliance technology has become a more active field for companies in recent years. However, according to Salasky, a former founder of CrowdJustice, most of the action has centred on contract management or other targeted 'point solutions,' whereas Legl aims to differentiate itself by providing a more holistic platform for law firms to improve their ability to serve clients by providing them with a suite of online technologies that can automate and support their business operations. This allows in-house legal experts to focus on more essential legal tasks. It is poised to become a law firm's go-to solution for modernizing and automating non-core functions as it has grown rapidly in the last year. Not only does this help a regulatory firm's revenues and margins, but it also means they can provide their clients with far better information.
