{"id":32050,"date":"2023-10-20T14:26:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/every-single-business-needs-legal-lawpath-raises-1-3-million-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:26:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:52","slug":"every-single-business-needs-legal-lawpath-raises-1-3-million-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/every-single-business-needs-legal-lawpath-raises-1-3-million-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEvery single business needs legal\u201d: LawPath raises $1.3 million – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Founders need to find investors that are ready to be fully involved in the whole journey and who share the same vision for the startup, LawPath CEO<\/a> Damien Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

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LawPath has closed a \u201cbridging\u201d round of $1.3 million to help shore up the platform and provide a runway towards a larger series A round in 2017.<\/p>\n

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Investors in this round include Brook Adcock from Adcock Group, who\u2019s been with LawPath since early last year after contributing $600,000 in May 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The round was also led by Macdoch Ventures and a syndicate formed by Fort Street Advisors principal Ben Keeble.<\/p>\n

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Andreasen says he and the LawPath team worked out to bring on board a team of investors that were ready to go on a journey with them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe focused on the people who were passionate about the idea, who believed in the journey and wanted to come on board with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cInvestors have to understand what you\u2019re doing, and we had to help them understand that there\u2019s a big shift happening in legal and that we can change traditional legal services.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eyes on the rest of the world<\/b><\/p>\n

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LawPath offers a cloud-based legal hub for businesses to access legal advice and services.<\/p>\n

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After some product updates and improvements and securing partnerships, the startup will be setting its sights on the US and Asia, LawPath CEO Damien Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have an eye on Asia but we want to make sure the platform is ready for when we move,\u201d Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the next 12 months are about \u2013 getting the right resources for the right time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe focus is to bolster the platform and resources we have, and push the LawPath branding and marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The latest round brings the total investment in the startup to $2.4 million.<\/p>\n

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A legal shift<\/b><\/p>\n

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There\u2019s been a general trend towards businesses turning to the internet for professional services and this has contributed to large growth for LawPath, Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

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It now has 13,000 businesses on board, a 400% year-on-year growth for the user base, while its revenue has grown by 800% in this time.<\/p>\n

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The shift towards cloud legal services is a no-brainer for all types of businesses, Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe beauty of what we do is the simplicity and immediacy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn five minutes you can be locked in and editing a legal doc or you can put yourself in front of what you need to educate yourself.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to be a one-stop shop for anything you need online, for everything you need to start and run your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This shift has also seen the online legal services market become more competitive and rivals have emerged, but Andreasen says this can only be a positive for all involved.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are a few popping up and we welcome them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving more players helps to validate the business. It\u2019s fantastic opportunity and it is a huge market.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From servicing startups to businesses of all sizes<\/b><\/p>\n

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LawPath launched in 2013<\/a> and first focused on helping early-stage startups work around new privacy laws, but Andreasen says the move towards servicing businesses of all sizes was always the plan.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the early stage we validated the business model with early-stage tech companies, and there was a huge demand for putting the right structures in place for an early-stage business,\u201d Andreasen says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat traditionally came with large expenses \u2013 we had a more cost-effective way and we validated it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThrough organic growth we went to traditional industries, from tradies to hairdressers. Our big aim is to continue that trend and become a household name for online legal services.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to be synonymous with the ability to go online and find whatever you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Legal is a crucial aspect for any business, Andreasen says, and an online platform makes this process easier and cheaper for the companies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEarly stage tech companies, large enterprise, tradies \u2013 everyone needs legal to run and manage a business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery single business needs legal. It\u2019s not a want; it\u2019s a have to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Want to grow your business <\/i>with Instagram?<\/i><\/a> StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founders need to find investors that are ready to be fully involved in the whole journey and who share the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19,20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}