The start-up gets an investment and a pledge of support
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LawPath has closed a $1.8m investment round led by LegalZoom, which has pledged to support the legaltech start-up.
“This exciting investment will enable our frontier pathway to disrupt the Australian legal system to continue,” said Dominic Woolrych, LawPath chief executive. “We are thrilled by the opportunities partnering with a global legal services provider will bring.”
“The next few years will bring a huge shift in how legal services are delivered in Australia,” Woolrych said. “Insurance, accounting and financial services have already moved online in a significant way, while online legal services have been adopted in the US, as illustrated by LegalZoom’s success. Our market leadership and additional funding demonstrate that LawPath is ideally positioned to drive Australians to embrace online legal services as well.”
Frank Monestere, LegalZoom president and COO, said that LawPath is “the clear market leader in Australia.” LawPath offers one of the most innovative technology-enabled online legal solutions that LegalZoom has seen around the world, he said.
In addition to expanding the reach of LawPath’s services, the partnership will also have LegalZoom providing LawPath with strategic guidance, including technology expertise and marketing insights. LegalZoom will also assist LawPath with its expansion plan across Australia and into international markets.
“We are incredibly excited to form an alliance with the pioneer of legal technology services,” Woolrych said. “LegalZoom’s investment and ongoing support significantly advances our drive to make legal services more accessible to everyone.”
Both LawPath and LegalZoom use their platforms to enhance client interaction with lawyers. Since its launch in 2013, LawPath has been used by more than 60,000 Australian businesses and individuals for legal needs, such as starting businesses, registering trademarks, and creating legal documents. Since 2001, LegalZoom has served more than four million customers in the US and the UK.
“Our technology platform allows customers to complete many simple legal tasks themselves, bypassing a traditional process that is costly, labour-intensive and time-consuming,” Woolrych said. “We’ve seen strong adoption, particularly from the more than 65% of our business customers who had never engaged with a lawyer prior to LawPath. This underscores our attractive market opportunity within the Australian legal services industry where millions of legal needs go unanswered every year.”
LawPath’s other investors include LexisNexis, Macdoch Ventures, the family office of former News Corp exec Alasdair MacLeod, Adcock Private Equity, and a syndicate led by Fort Street Advisors principal Ben Keeble.
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