New Zealand-based legal tech startup LawVu raises $11.93M to expand its connected platform for in-house legal teams

With technology disrupting various industries and many aspects of our lives, the legal sector, to some extent, is still lagging behind. An example of this can be found in the day-to-day operations of the in-house legal teams.

Traditionally, the limited technology specifically available to in-house legal teams has been dominated by “point solutions” or products that solve very niche problems, but these solutions are disconnected from each other which creates inefficiency and a greater risk of error. Procuring all these tools individually is a nightmare and it’s almost impossible to get a holistic view of what’s happening across the in-house legal function.

Enter LawVu, a New Zealand-based legal tech startup that provides a legal workspace and the world’s first truly connected software platform for in-house legal teams and enables legal teams to be more collaborative and deliver high-value outcomes. Its cloud-based platform also offers tremendous value to the C-suite by providing new engagement and visibility into the work that the in-house legal team is doing.

Today, LawVu announced today it has raised $11.93 million ($17 million NZD) in Series A funding to expand its operations and maintain its leadership position in that niche market. The round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners with support from a leading Australian venture capital firm AirTree Ventures.

The startup has been growing since its inception in 2015. In 2020, LawVu tripled its annual recurring revenue, and with more than two-thirds of recurring revenue now coming from the US and Australian markets, LawVu will hire key leadership roles in the US to drive global go-to-market, open US offices and accelerate the development of its platform for corporate in-house legal teams.

“In-house legal teams perform a critical function inside every corporation,” said Sam Kidd, co-founder and CEO of LawVu. “However, you’ll often find that the only ‘tech’ they have is email and word documents, and legal teams are becoming a bottleneck, as the rest of the business leverages technology to speed up. It’s incredibly exciting to be pioneering a new category and extending our leadership in this space.”

Founded six years ago by Sam Kidd and Tim Boyne, the Tauranga, New Zealand-based LawVu develops and distributes its SaaS platform to enterprise customers around the world including Nissan, Fonterra, Rocket Apples, and ZURU.

Its platform allows teams to manage all their matters, contracts, documents, e-billing, outsourced work, and reporting from one cloud-based, secure and connected platform, with a growing ecosystem of connected third-party tools that are critical to a high-performing in-house function.

LawVu has also grown internationally, signing deals with world-leading enterprises which include Telstra, AMP, Linktree, Expedia, PwC, and most recently San Francisco-based tech company Instacart. LawVu now has users based in more than 30 countries globally.

LawVu Founders