Be it SMEs or large organisations, creating and managing contracts is an essential part of every business. However, every step is time-consuming and prone to standard data entry errors.
To make sure legit leads don’t fall away at the finish line, choosing good contract management software is crucial. And this is where French startup Leeway comes into play.
Raised €3.5M
Leeway helps companies reduce the time spent on contract management and gives them more control and visibility over legal and financial risks.
Recently, the company has raised $4.2M (approx €3.5M) funding from HenQ and Kima Ventures, Xavier Niel’s investment fund. Business angels, including the founders of Algolia, Eventbrite, Spendesk, MeilleursAgents, Livestorm, and Luko, have also contributed.
A bit about investors
Based in Amsterdam, henQ invests in the seed and series A phases of B2B SaaS companies in Europe. Most notable investments include startups such as Mendix, Sendcloud, Mews, Zivver, Orderchamp, and Stravito.
On the other hand, Kima Ventures is one of the world’s most active early-stage investors. Based in Paris at Station F, Kima has invested in nearly 900 startups since 2010, including Wise, Carta, Zenly, Luko, Payfit, Docker, Sqreen, and Front.
Fund utilisation
The funding will allow the company to recruit around 20 people in 2021 to work in tech, product development, marketing, and customer success teams to offer the best contract management experience on the market. Furthermore, Leeway also aims to simplify its contract management for in-house legal departments.
“Today, companies waste huge amounts of time and money on the pre-contract stages, before signature. The future of contract management lies in modern, intuitive solutions that encourage both internal and external collaboration. We want to drive that change.” enthuses Antoine Fabre, Leeway’s co-founder and CEO.
30 clients in 6 months
Founded by Antoine Fabre, Sébastien Decrême, and Thibaut Caoudal in 2019, Leeway is incubated at Station F in Paris. After six months of its official launch, the startup already has nearly thirty clients in France and the United Kingdom, including Voodoo, Evaneos, Ifop, and Fitness Park.
Leeway says that with over 500 users each week, more than 10,000 contracts have been created on the platform. With the platform, it is now possible to manage the contract life cycle efficiently: from creation to tracking, including negotiation and signature.
How was Leeway born?
Paris-based Leeway was established after the founders were fed up with errors, numerous tools, and impossible collaboration.
“After three months spent meeting more than 100 legal, sales, finance, and purchasing teams to understand their daily lives, we decided to quit our jobs and move to Toulouse to structure all the feedback and design the first solutions and prototypes,” according to a blog posted by the company.
Revenue model
The SaaS company has a subscription-based business model with pay-per-user pricing. The platform offers different pricing depending on the user’s role and access to different features.
Alexis Robert, the partner at Kima Ventures, adds: “Millions of contracts are created every day, yet most of those managing them complain of disastrous experiences. We are still stuck with solutions such as Word, which was created in the 1980s. The market is vast and the use of electronic signatures have paved the way. Companies are ready to adopt solutions like Leeway.
