London-based Orbital Witness, a part legaltech, part proptech startup, announced on Friday that it has secured £7.5M (approximately €8.63M) in a Series A round of funding.
The startup uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the property-buying process, relieving attorneys and their clients of time-consuming paperwork.
The round was led by proptech investor Parker89 and joined by LocalGlobe, Outward VC, Seedcamp, Portfolio Ventures, and Realty Corporation.
About Orbital Witness
After seeing first-hand how much paperwork lawyers are required to handle during a property transaction, Will Pearce founded Orbital Witness with Ed Boulle in 2018. The startup uses machine learning and AI to alter the legal processes in property transfers.
It assists attorneys and property experts in dealing with the labour-intensive and regulated ‘diligence’ procedure that dates back to the Victorian period and carries property due diligence into the 21st century.
Pearce says, “A lot of the legal due diligence involved in buying property hasn’t materially changed for 150 years. These processes are weighing down legal experts and burying them in a mountain of paperwork. This is also slowing down the process for buyers and making it more complicated than needed.”
“We transform how property transactions are handled by providing an instant picture of key risks a lawyer needs to know about a property, so they can advise their client quickly and with maximum clarity.”
“We’ve made great progress building our platform amongst commercial real estate specialists and we couldn’t be more excited to now bring our technology to the residential market. Residential conveyancers will soon be able to give their clients everything they need to know about the home they’re hoping to buy, in seconds.”
“This will demystify the property purchasing process and ensure everyone can understand it.”
Capital utilisation
Orbital Witness says it plans to utilise the funding to expand into the residential sector, allowing legal conveyancers to provide property buyers visibility into any concerns at the start of the purchase process.
The company’s technology has already powered over 76,000 transactions and saved over 74 million minutes to date for more than 2,000 attorneys and property experts from clients including Tesla, Mischon de Reya, Freshfields, Slaughter & May, and M&S.
“Liberation for everyone involved in property transactions”
Currently, real estate attorneys must get legal papers, maps, and records before going through them one by one to discover difficulties that their clients need to be aware of.
The Orbital Witness platform changes this by automatically recognising information and documents from public sources, such as the Land Registry and Local Authorities.
It then employs generative AI and natural language processing techniques to analyse important documents like leases and deeds, which can be hundreds of pages long.
This gives users a quick overview of any problems, risks, or peculiarities that might influence a real estate transaction.
Residential conveyancing firms gain multiple advantages from Orbital Witness’ entry into the home buying market – relief from burdensome paperwork, assistance as they manage the complex field of leasehold transactions, and the capacity needed to provide prompt, concise, and actionable advice to a greater number of clients.
The startup says that the use of its technology will not only speed up the legal process required in purchasing a property, but will also proactively indicate concerns like whether dogs are permitted under the building lease, whether there are rising ground rates or service costs to take into account, or whether planning permission has been granted nearby.
Buyers will avoid grief and additional expenditures later on if they are aware of these potential problems early on in the acquisition.
In the future, the company hopes that its technology can make this level of insight available to home buyers from day one by embedding key information into property portals or estate agent websites, helping make the home-buying process far more transparent.
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