British legal tech startup Thirdfort raises £1m in seed-plus funding round

British Legal tech startup Thirdfort secured £1 million in its latest fund raising, as the security specialist looks to capitalise on increasing demand from law firms. The seed-plus investment round garnered interest from a number of new, high-profile investors including James Meekings and Andy Mullinger, co-founders of Funding Circle, and David Rutter, founder of R3, in addition to further funding from law firm Mishcon de Reya and a range of other private investors.

It brings the company’s total funds raised to £2.7 million and will support investment across all aspects of the business, as its law firm clients look to accelerate the adoption of secure, remote, user-friendly technology in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

FCA regulated Thirdfort is a web and mobile app that combines document scanning, facial recognition technology and Open Banking, to streamline identity and source of funds checks carried out by lawyers. Thirdfort lets conveyancers and lawyers onboard their clients quickly, securely and entirely remotely.

The business saw a five-fold increase in inbound leads during March and April as a result of law firms being forced to work remotely, consumers social distancing, and in-person ID checks becoming almost impossible. Since March the team has grown from 15 to 25 and is forecasting a 60% growth in headcount during the next 12 months.

Thirdfort graduated from Mishcon de Reya’s prestigious MDR LAB accelerator programme in 2018, before setting up its first office in Victoria, London. The business has since attracted seed funding from Mishcon and a number of high-profile angel investors including Alex Chesterman (Zoopla founder) and Chris Marks (ex-CEO of Natwest Markets).

Olly Thornton-Berry, Co-founder and Managing Director said: “The need for the legal market to rapidly adapt in light of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a major catalyst for change, and we believe there is an enormous opportunity to help lawyers cut out fraud risk while improving the client experience during life’s big moments, through a slick and simple mobile app. We’ve seen a huge increase in demand from our law firm clients and, despite a challenging market backdrop, we’ve secured a further £1m investment which will allow us to press the pedal harder on our growth plans. Our technology transforms the highly inefficient, manual methods used by many firms, improving identity verification and money laundering compliance, and reducing the risk of cybercrime, three areas in which lawyers face increasing anxiety and uncertainty from heavy regulatory burdens, technology overload and rampant fraud.”

www.thirdfort.com