The seed round was led by GV, the venture capital investment arm of U.S.-based Alphabet, with participation from London-based investor Episode 1 Ventures. The funds will be used to enter other undisclosed markets. Lawhive's CEO, Pierre Proner, highlighted the potential for automation to increase productivity in the consumer legal space, which is currently served by around 10,000 small law firms in the UK. The company had previously raised £1.3m from Episode1 at Pre-seed.
Key takeaways:
- UK-based legaltech startup Lawhive has raised £9.5 million ($11.9 million) in a seed round to expand its AI-driven services for small law firms. The company offers an AI-based, in-house “lawyer” through a software-as-a-service platform.
- Lawhive's AI lawyer, "Lawrence", is built on top of its own large language model (LLM), which it claims has passed the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) with an 81% grade against a passing grade of 55%.
- The startup plans to use the seed round to enter other markets, which have not been publicly disclosed yet. The seed round was led by GV, the venture capital investment arm of U.S.-based Alphabet, and London-based investor Episode 1 Ventures also participated.
- Lawhive targets the consumer legal space, which is served by thousands of small law firms. The company's CEO, Pierre Proner, believes there's a strong opportunity for automation to help the sector increase productivity.