In a significant boost for legal technology cloud provider Peppermint Technology, Silicon Valley tech investment firm Accel-KKR and long-term investors Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) are to invest over £7m to accelerate Peppermint’s growth and further develop its legal software as a service platform, we can reveal.
Based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Peppermint provides the full suite of legal applications, delivered as a SaaS product.
Last year it launched a Dynamics 365 public cloud customer relationship management system that is said to be gaining the interest of Microsoft’s larger enterprise clients, leading Microsoft to say that Peppermint has “shifted gears.”
Speaking to Legal IT Insider last year, Microsoft’s enterprise sales manager Matt O’Callaghan said: “I’ve seen a huge shift in Peppermint between the beginning of this year and now in terms of their capability around CRM online.
“Peppermint were in our eyes a small to medium business partner, but they’ve shifted gears. They have new leadership focussed on looking at the future platform and moving into the cloud space. There has been a lot of feedback about CRM online from traditional customers but a lot of interest from Big Law and Tony [Cox] has been engaged in opportunities around that.”
That follows the arrival of a new c-suite including CEO Gary Young, CFO Nicki Grundy, and Cox, who joined as chief sales officer in May 2018.
Some will undoubtedly query why Peppermint – which has already received over £10m from SEP, including a £1.5m cash injection last summer – needs further external investment. Speak to competitors in the market and they will tell you that Peppermint’s costs are far too high, it is having trouble scaling, and that it should be able to wash its own face by now.
But where the injection of further capital by SEP could have been put down to the fact that SEP was already financially committed to Peppermint, the injection of brand new capital by Accel-KKR, which has $4bn under management, is a different matter. It will, however, naturally raise questions as to how much equity is left in the company.
CEO Gary Young said: “This is a very exciting time for Peppermint. The backing of both Accel-KKR and SEP reinforces that our innovative approach to transforming legal services through technology fundamentally sets us apart in the industry.
“When I joined the company in early 2018, I recognised a real opportunity to make a difference in the legal sector. With this investment, we will continue to enhance our product offering and accelerate our go-to-market strategy, whilst focusing on the delivery of a great experience to our customers.”
Samantha Shows, managing director at Accel-KKR said: “Since we first began conversations with Peppermint, we have been impressed with the sophistication and focus of the management team and their mission to leverage technology to make their customers lives easier and more efficient. We are excited to back this customer-centric business as they continue building their momentum in the market.”
The investment follows huge flux in the practice management system market most notably the recent sale by LexisNexis of its Dynamics based ERP LexisOne. Yesterday (23 January) we revealed that Thomson Reuters Elite is to sunset its Dynamics-based CRM system 3E Business Development (formerly Business Development Premier) after a lack of uptake. The latter move can be expected to open up further opportunities for Peppermint, albeit most BDP clients are in the states.
In the Orange Rag out on 30 January we interview Gary Young about the latest investment. If you’re not yet signed up for the free newsletter, click here: http://legaltechnology.com//latest-newsletter/
