Founded by a registered blind lawyer and backed by Microsoft and Google, UK legaltech startup Definely raises €6.5M

London-based Definely, a legaltech company created to make legal documents easier to read, edit, and understand, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $7M (approximately €6.5M) in a Series A funding round. 

The funding round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Cornerstone VC and Zrosk Investment Ltd. 

The round also saw participation from well-known angels Claire Hughes Johnson, Comron Sattari, Ajay Patel, and Babatunde Soyoye join the cap table. 

As a part of the funding round, Edward Keelan, partner at Octopus Ventures joins CRE Venture Capital and Zrosk Investments on the board.

Definely: Legal documents made simple

Founded in 2020, Definely makes it easier for lawyers to read, edit, and understand legal documents. 

Definely, a solution for enhancing the accessibility of legal documents for visually impaired individuals was originally developed by two lawyers at Freshfields Law Firm. 

Feargus MacDaeid, who is legally blind, and Nnamdi Emelifeonwu, a Nigerian migrant, developed the technology while working together, which provides significant daily time savings for lawyers working on contracts.

“Before we built Definely, lawyers that needed to access information and understand contracts would use Ctrl+F keys, multiple windows, scroll through hundreds of pages, or simply print out documents so that they could reference all the information in one place. As someone who is visually impaired, you can imagine the challenge this represented for me. It sounds like an obvious problem, but you wouldn’t believe how many hours law firms can spend just looking for the right information,” says Feargus MacDaeid, Co-Founder & CSO of Definely. 

Delivered as a Microsoft Word Plugin, the company’s suite of productivity solutions assists lawyers at every pre-execution stage of the contract lifecycle, helping its customers draft, proof, and understand legal documents quickly.

With over 60 employees located globally, the company is now focused on adding to its existing base of 40,000 active users from the largest companies and law firms in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.

“Definely is a testament to the power of diverse perspectives and accessibility first in innovation. So we built the simplest delivery possible for our tech, incorporating it via a Microsoft Word Plugin so that it integrates with every lawyer’s existing workflow and tooling. It was this in part, that allowed us to become such an entrenched provider of legal technology to some of the world’s largest law firms and corporations so quickly”, adds Nnamdi Emelifeonwu, Co-Founder & CEO of Definely.

Backed by Google and Microsoft, Definely’s customers include elite law firms and Fortune 500 companies including Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman), Eversheds, DLA Piper, Deloitte, Ericsson, and Barclays, among others. 

The company is currently operational in Europe, North America, Africa, Australia and Asia.

The investor

Octopus Ventures is the most active venture capital investor in the UK and Europe, investing in and supporting the people, ideas, and industries that are changing the world.

It has built expertise across seven sectors: B2B software, climate tech, consumer tech, deep tech, fintech, biotech, and health, and has backed more than 180 businesses across the UK and Europe, including successes like Zoopla, WaveOptics, and Depop. 

“At Octopus Ventures, we’re backing the entrepreneurs who make it their mission to empower people and change industries for the better. Definely is a fantastic example of this – what started as a solution to improve accessibility in the legal industry, has evolved into a product that boosts productivity for all lawyers. By leveraging their powerful AI and strong relationships with companies like Microsoft, Definely is well-positioned to make significant inroads into this $60bn industry,” says Edward Keelan, partner at Octopus Ventures.