Lawpath Raises $7.5M as it Expands Internationally | LPI
An Australian legal tech start-up, Lawpath raises $7.5 million as it seeks to expand in New Zealand and south-east Asia, by stating that its legal services cost a tenth of the traditional service costs.
Lawpath claims that they have approximately 230,000 users for both free and paid services, and help establish 5% of the new companies in Australia.
The new investors include the Gonski family, Justin Ryan, chairman of Adore Beauty, Barry and Darren Smorgon’s Sandbar Investments, and Tony Faure, chair of Ooh! Media and Readytech.
US-based investors include the director of LegalZoom, Kahi Ha, and founding partners at the late Kobe Bryant’s VC fund, Bryant Stibel and Gonzalo Troncoso, while returning investors include Adcock Private Equity and LegalZoom, which has led Lawpath’s last funding round in 2019.
The company reveals that its subscription-based model on its on-demand legal platform leads to affordable yet seamless access to online tools, workflows, legal documents, and on-demand lawyers. Lawpath chief executive Dominic Woolrych states that there has been significant growth during the lockdown as most businesses moved online which required on-demand professional advice for survival. There has also been a significant increase in small business setups on its platform as a large portion of Australians began side hustle jobs with remote work.
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Woolrych said, “When I was working as a lawyer, I saw first-hand the issues that businesses face with the legal system,”.
"Currently, 87% of small businesses do not seek legal advice due to cost or access issues. There are many legal transactions that happen every day that small businesses don’t seek legal advice on simply because they can’t afford to and it’s leaving them unprotected.”
"This is why we launched Lawpath six years ago. Small businesses access accounting, banking, and finance solutions via online platforms, and legal should be no different.”
"We’ve created a service that means businesses can have unlimited access to legal help for the same price as their monthly broadband fee."
Faure, soon-to-be chairman at Lawpath's said, "I invested in Lawpath because I’m a huge advocate of the company, the platform, the people and the incredible growth.”
"I love its mission to democratise law so much that I wanted the opportunity to be a part of it too. The investment in products to help small businesses access legal support is critical during these turbulent post-COVID times."
Other investors include the UAE-based Aditum Investment Management, Ben Keeble, managing director of E&P Capital, and Peter Oey, the chief financial officer of Grab and MFO Investments.
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