ECFX, the California-based electronic court notice management system for law firms, in July received a strategic investment from The LegalTech Fund, bringing the total funding amount for the company to over $3.5M since its inception in 2019. We asked co-founder and CEO Dan O’Day to share some insights into how the money will be used and he updates us on some big name clients.
Dan, tell us about the investment you just received – how much and from who?
It was a small investment, I cannot disclose the exact amount, from The LegalTech Fund.
What was the reason for going out for investment now?
We had closed a Seed-2 round at the end of last year. TLTF was not able to make it into that round and asked if we would consider an investment post close. We spoke to the board and everyone agreed it would be a good strategic decision.
And why did you choose the Legal Tech Fund as your newest investor?
They are very knowledgeable and well connected in the legal industry. I have gotten to know Zach [Posner] and Nate [Schorr] over the past few years and have known Mike Suchsland for well over a decade from our time together at Thomson Reuters. They are all believers in what technology can do for lawyers to both improve efficiency and more importantly improve their lives. This align 100% with our philosophy at ECFX.
What other investment have you received to date?
After our friends and family who believed in us early on – our first institutional investor was The Cove Fund out of University of California Irvine. They helped us complete a $1.5M seed-1 round at the end of 2019. Our second round Seed-2 was led by The Bricks, with Cove and some prior investors also participating. Another key investor in that round was The Traction Fund. That round was oversubscribed and we raised almost $2M. The recent investment by TLTF pushed the total investment over $3.5M.
What do you plan to spend the money on/what are your strategic priorities?
Our focus is first and foremost on client satisfaction. You can call any of our clients today and get a positive reference from them. That takes investment of time and money. We also plan to cover all jurisdictions and 3rd party service providers in the entire U.S., and then expand to other countries.
Give us a bit of an update on ECFX in terms of product or the company itself.
We have had great success adding firms of all sizes including solos, and the world’s largest firms including Dentons, White & Case, ArentFox Schiff, Perkins Coie, Cooley, and more. We are very proud of the clients we have manage to attract to the solution. It is rare that a LegalTech company can server both large and small firms. This span in firm size opens up the market potential which helps with growth prospects and attracts investment.
What can we expect to see from ECFX in the new few months?
Some more very large firms coming on board and our first insurance company as we expand into other industries!
We will also be at ILTA later this month in DC and look forward meeting with everyone in person!