In its third funding round The Link App led by founder and CEO Lauren Riley – one of the comparatively very few female founders in legal tech – has secured £340k in funding led by NPIF-Mercia Equity Finance as well as existing and new angel investors, bringing total investment in the business to £500k.
A former Manchester solicitor, Riley developed The LinkApp to help law firms communicate more effectively with
clients after becoming frustrated with outdated working practices and sending confidential documents by email and post.
The Link App provides a secure and paperless way for firms to communicate with clients via app or web
portal. Lawyers can send updates and forms directly to the client’s smartphone, while the client can fill
them in and submit signatures instantly using the mobile app. It also allows clients to stay up-to-date with
the progress of their case while saving lawyers’ time. The Link App can be used by itself or integrated with
existing systems.
Last year Sir Nigel Knowles took over as chairman of the UK-headquartered company, injecting £20,000 as the company announced that it was attempting to raise £300,000 through crowdfunding.
A significant amount of the £340k was raised through Seedrs crowdfunding platform, with early stage investor The Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund putting in £100,000.
While the £340k exceeds the target set and is a vote of confidence in the platform, it pales into insignificance when compared with most of the recent legal tech funding rounds, which have typically been in the millions.
According to a statement out today (2 August) the investment will allow Riley to expand the team and add further features to the system, including the ability to provide clients with milestones to monitor the progress of their case and upload documents, including their ID, directly from their mobile phone.
Riley said on LinkedIn today: “I am proud to announce The Link App’s latest funding round is complete. We are now backed by the Northern PowerHouse Investment Fund via Mercia. Thank you to existing investors for continued support, to new VC and angels for backing us. Plus our amazing team and everyone that helped us on our journey. This is significant recognition of our progress to date and the future is incredibly exciting- more announcements to come!
Caroline Walker and Gareth Saynor of CMS provided legal advice to Mercia while Jensons Solutions
provided fundraising advice to the business.