Legal Tech Startup Scene Is Alive + Kicking – Finds Oz Tech Hub
Lander & Rogers has just completed its Legal Tech Pitch Night in Australia and saw what ten relatively new companies from around the world had on offer – and it was a lot, which is very encouraging.
The winner was Ukraine-based Lawyered!, which is an IP protection platform. It was part of a group of ten companies that reached the final stages of the law firm’s LawTech Hub pitch competition. The winner gained access to thousands of dollars-worth of support, which includes credits for AWS, Microsoft Azure, legal help, and access to a range of service providers from insurance specialists to cap table management.
The programme was held in partnership with Australia’s largest network of startup communities, Silicon Beach, and AirTree, a venture capital firm.
The ten finalists were:
Argos Regtech – financial compliance
BotL – trains and educates law students on legal tech, (seems not wholly tech-based, but, hey, it all helps.)
Halisok – unstructured data platform
Jigsaw – visualise your deals, (a bit like StructureFlow)
LAWCATE – legal education and careers, (also seems not wholly tech-based, but, hey, it all helps.)
Lawyerd! – IP protection system
My Life Capsule – keep and protect key personal information
NetNada – helps measure your climate impact, (not really legal tech, unless you include as part of ESG-related legal needs)
Patent Path – patent drafting system
SettleIndex – financial litigation assessment tool
As mentioned, the winner was Lawyerd!, an automated copyright protection platform that stops online scammers from profiting from businesses’ intellectual property. The startup has already ‘detected and deleted 30,000 infringements and saved clients including Philips, Husqvarna and Plarium over US$2m’, they said.
The runners-up were Sydney-based NetNada, which is ‘AI-based software that integrates into businesses by utilising available data to analyse their carbon emissions’. NetNada then provides a solution to ‘reduce those emissions whilst driving ROI and stakeholder engagement’.
And also, Melbourne’s My Life Capsule, which ‘provides 24/7 mobile access and secure data sharing for life administration’.
Courtney Blackman, Head of Partnerships at the law firm, said: ‘In the first round, judges looked at overall idea and scalability. In round two, the [judges] looked at how the startup’s ideas compared to competitors, their teams and capability to scale, and marketability.’
The pitch night precedes the opening of applications for the 2023 LawTech Hub, which is earmarked for late November, the law firm added, so keep an eye out for that.
Overall, the key message here for Artificial Lawyer is that there are still plenty of startups coming through, some such as SettleIndex this site has covered before, several others not.
Either way it shows that people are still creating plenty of new and innovative companies in the legal space, pushing boundaries and testing their ideas in the market. Some of these may go on to become ‘household names’ at least relative to the niche we are in, others may not. But, they are there, with founders trying to make a difference and that’s great to see. Congrats to all of them and hat tip to Australia’s Lander & Rogers for supporting change in the industry.
