Of late, legal tech has been a point of focus for several VCs and investment firms considering the potential in the space. On the other hand, numerous legal firms are investing heavily in innovation to automate and streamline their work to stay ahead of the curve.
These changes in the legal tech market have opened doors to the development and adoption of legal technologies that allow legal-service providers to enhance productivity, offer innovative digital products, and improve quality while keeping costs at a low level.
Even though the legal industry has been slow to adopt innovations, there are plenty of startups/firms out there doing their best to disrupt the industry and usher it into the modern age.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam is home to many startups and entrepreneurs creating successful legal tech businesses. Here’s a list of seven Amsterdam-based startups that are disrupting the legal sector.
Certain details of these startups, such as founders’ names, founded year, and the total funding raised, have been sourced from Dealroom.
Ligo
Founders: Wendy Bogers
Founding: €500k
Founded by female founder Wendy Bogers, Ligo offers legal documents, notarial services, and free phone consultation with lawyers and legal workflows. Through its Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution, the Amsterdam-based Ligo helps businesses and enterprises increase productivity, optimise collaborations with stakeholders and increase revenue.
LegalMatters
Founders: Albert Oegema, Piet-Hein Boekel
Founding: €600K
The online legal platform offers a total package of legal services and products at fixed and competitive prices. The Amsterdam-based company comprises a team of enthusiastic and skilled lawyers with a refreshing view of legal services.
Bluetick
Founder/s: Koen Aarns, Thijs Kranenburg, Kasper Kooijman
Funding: €610K
Bluetick is an online search engine for lawyers. Its algorithm uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), making it possible to find similar court cases based on the context of a document.
Bluetick raised €210K pre-seed funding round from Amsterdam-based investment funds henQ Capital and ASIF Ventures, last year to improve its legal search algorithm.
Firm24
Founders: Martijn Migchelsen, Rick Schmitz
Funding: NA
Firm24 is an online platform for corporate services, based out of Amsterdam. The platform offers all administrative- and legal requirements that a Dutch company is obliged to comply with, at a fixed price. It includes the incorporation of a Dutch BV, filing annual accounts, various tax returns, and payroll administration.
Reynen Court
Founder: Andrew Klein
Funding: €13.2M
Based out of Amsterdam, Reynen Court enables law firms and corporate legal departments to speed their adoption of AI, Smart Contracts, and other new technologies. Notably, the company enables firms to run cloud-based applications either on-premises or within virtual private clouds under their control — thus giving access to modern software solutions without requiring a sacrifice of security or stability.
Last year, Reynen Court secured $4.5M (approx €3.7M) in funding from Global venture capital fund Ventech along with other investors Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins, and investment company Prins.
SignRequest
Founders: Geert Jan Persoon, Michaël Krens, and Nick Dessens
Funding: NA
SignRequest helps users sign documents through its online platform. It offers an e-signature tool that can be integrated with other enterprise tools, including Salesforce, Google Drive, Zapier, and Dropbox. Recently, San-Francisco-based Box acquired the Dutch startup for $55M (approx €45.6M).
LegalThings
Founder: Arnold Daniels, Martijn Migchelsen, Rick Schmitz
Funding: NA
LegalThings helps real estate companies to automate and digitise the entire contract lifecycle process. The company was born from a common pain – spending too much time on process management and reproduction of the same content. The FIRM 24 spin-off is currently offered as a white-label solution for every organisation that wants to upgrade their digital transaction management. Earlier this year, KATE Innovations, software developer for digital real estate processes, acquired LegalThings from Firm24.