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Legislate raises $3.6M to further simplify contract creation and management for startups & SMEs 

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Legislate is focused on revolutionising contract management for businesses and landlords, using its patented knowledge graph technology. 

London-based Legislate recently announced it has added $3.6M in funding in a round led by Parkwalk Advisors, with participation from Oxford Capital and several high-profile angel investors. Legislate, which uses its patented knowledge graph technology to simplify contract management and make it cost-effective for SMEs, will use the funds to double down on UK sales and prepare for international expansion in 2023. 

Founded in 2020 by Charles Brecque, Legislate simplifies the process of creating contracts, saving a core market of small businesses around 3 hours per contract. In 2022 the company announced it had been granted its second US patent for semantic document generation, further enhancing its patented knowledge graph technology – and ultimately benefiting Legislate’s customers. 

With Legislate’s technology, contracts can be made machine-readable, allowing business users to easily create, manage, and sign contracts without the need for expensive legal involvement. Extracting basic information like a start date or performing any form of aggregate contract analysis is traditionally manual and can take days or even weeks, depending on the size of the business. 

With Legislate’s technology, however, the process is simplified, allowing businesses to easily track, query, and share contract data at scale. Customers predominantly use Legislate for employment, consultancy, internal contracts, and terms of business agreements, the company confirmed. 

The company, which is initially focused on expanding its sales team to target SME and mid-market companies in the UK, estimates the minimum market value is worth in the region of $13Bn. With this latest funding round, Legislate is poised to revolutionise the contract management industry, enabling more businesses to streamline their contract management processes.

“We are delighted to have secured additional funding capable of helping us continue to drive innovation in this sector. The grant of our second patent last year has put our technology in an extremely strong position coming into 2023 – we’re making it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and manage complex contracts quickly and in a way that allows them to extract and aggregate data afterwards. We’re looking forward to what we can achieve this year as we focus on our sales capability”, commented Charles Brecque, Founder and CEO of Legislate.

 “Legislate has developed a unique solution to simplify contracting for SMEs and mid-market businesses in a way that scales. We’re confident that they are well-positioned to take a significant portion of the market. Their focus on making contracts machine-readable is particularly impressive and we believe it has the potential to be a game-changer in the industry,” commented Claire Pardo from Parkwalk Advisors.

“We are proud to back Charles and the team in their mission to use tech to revolutionise contract creation and management. Investing in Legislate is investing in the future of machine-readable contracts. Their patented Knowledge Graph system sets them apart from other technologies and makes it simple for people without legal training to access contracts created by lawyers and manage them effectively,” commented Stephen Hampson, Investment Director at Oxford Capital.  

For more information about Legislate, visit their website at https://legislate.ai/ 

 

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Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.

What are the key risks?

  1. You could lose all the money you invest
    1. If the business you invest in fails, you are likely to lose 100% of the money you invested. Most start-up businesses fail.
  2. You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong
    1. Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker here.
    2. Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.
  3. You won’t get your money back quickly
    1. Even if the business you invest in is successful, it may take several years to get your money back. You are unlikely to be able to sell your investment early.
    2. The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
    3. If you are investing in a start-up business, you should not expect to get your money back through dividends. Start-up businesses rarely pay these.
  4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
    1. Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well.
    2. A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments. https://www.fca.org.uk/investsmart/5-questions-ask-you-invest
  5. The value of your investment can be reduced
    1. The percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
    2. These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don’t have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

 

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA’s website here.