LegalTech Scale up Clarilis raises £6m to fuel expansion

High growth legal technology business Clarilis secures £6m and gains new investors in its latest funding round

Clarilis is delighted to announced that it has raised £6m in a Series B round of funding. The co-investment has come from Mercia Asset Management, Northern VCTs(£2.5m), an existing investor and Gresham House Ventures (£3.5m) investing on behalf of the Baronsmead VCTs.

The funding raised in this round will be used to support Clarilis’ ongoing growth and international expansion.  Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialised in scaling companies with business models driven by technology, customer insight or service excellence, has invested £3.5m and existing investors Mercia Asset Management, Northern VCTs has invested £2.5m.  The investment round which completed on 31^st July, is designed to assist in the company’s continued growth internationally, and fund its sales, marketing and product development functions.

Clarilis is a leading provider of automated drafting technology. The CLARILIS™ platform was designed from the ground up to automate complex suites of precedents, such as Share Purchase and Facility Agreement suites with many ancillaries, many parties and complex underlying deal structures. The CLARILIS™ platform saves significant amounts of lawyer time whilst ensuring that law firms and in-house legal departments draft consistently high-quality documentation.  This creates time for solicitors to focus on what they do best – providing bespoke advice to clients and handling non-standard aspects of transactions.

Clarilis was co-founded by brothers James Quinn, a former solicitor, and Kevin Quinn, the technical architect of the CLARILIS™ platform and former lead developer. Since launching to the market in 2015 Clarilis has experienced consistently strong growth.  The business now boasts an impressive blue-chip client base with an exceptionally high level of customer satisfaction.

Henry Alty, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures, said:

“We have spent a long time looking at automation within professional and financial services. While the legal world has arguably been a late adopter of technology, firms are realising that automation is essential to driving both cost efficiency and resilience across distributed workforces.

In Clarilis we have found an ambitious business with a market-leading solution and exceptional customer satisfaction as a result of its fully managed service. It exemplifies the type of technology-driven and scalable business model that our investment team look for. We’ve been impressed by the impact that Clarilis has already had in the market and as the business expands, particularly into the South East Asian market, we are excited to be bringing our experience to bear and to help facilitate its growth.” 

Tim Levett, Investment Chairman, Mercia Northern Venture Funds, commented:

“We are pleased to be investing once again in this leading LegalTech business, particularly in this current environment where the rapid adoption of user-friendly consumer software has fundamentally changed user expectations within enterprise. Regardless of the complexities of any business process, elegant automation and consumer-grade UX are the critical success factors that have set Clarilis and its platform apart, especially filling the void left by legacy software in this sector.  

Mercia’s strong tech and SaaS investment credentials and experience combined with our ability to invest through the lifecycle of a business will be important to support the team at Clarilis as they continue to scale the business.”

James Quinn, CEO and co-founder of Clarilis, added: “It’s fantastic to have the continued support from the investment team at Mercia Asset Management and I’m really pleased they’re backing us again.  We are also delighted that Gresham House has chosen to invest.  Gresham House were the clear choice here given Henry Alty and James Hendry’s in-depth knowledge of the LegalTech space and excellent insight.  The Gresham House team also share our vision for the development of the Clarilis platform going forward. 

This investment will provide the resources required to bring significant enhancements to our platform and to further scale the Clarilis team both in the UK and abroad. 

The uniqueness of Clarilis’ intelligent drafting platform and managed service is resonating with organisations globally – particularly as current market conditions highlight the importance of technology that can provide a strategic advantage.”

• ENDS–

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Further information please contact:

• Grace Hart, Marketing Manager, Clarilis [email protected]
• Alison Dwyer, Head of Marketing & Communications, Mercia Asset Management  PLC [email protected]
• Alex Hogan, Director, KL Communications [email protected]

Due Diligence Providers on the deal included:

• Commercial: Earlsferry Advisory & Meridian West
• Sales: Sales Forensics
• Organisation: Confidas-People
• Financial: Andrew Tonks
• Technology: X88
• Legal: Shoosmiths and Legal Clarity

About Clarilis

Clarilis is a market leading drafting automation platform and the largest team of automation specialists in the UK.  Designed for law firms and in-house legal teams, the CLARILIS™ platform saves a significant amount of time in producing first drafts of all forms of legal documentation.  Clarilis is particularly known for drafting complex suites of legal documents.

Time to real value is accelerated by Clarilis’ results-focussed methodology, through the combination of the intelligent drafting platform and lawyer-led customer team – drafting automation is delivered on time, for a fixed fee with a solid ROI.

Clarilis works with leading law firms and organisations such as Addleshaw Goddard, Baker McKenzie, GoCompare, Gowling WLG, Herbert Smith Freehills, National Grid, Slaughter and May, TLT and Travers Smith.

About Mercia Asset Management PLC

Mercia is a proactive, specialist asset manager focused on supporting regional SMEs to achieve their growth aspirations. Mercia provides capital across its four asset classes of balance sheet, venture, private equity and debt capital: the Group’s ‘Complete Connected Capital’. The Group initially nurtures businesses via its third-party funds under management, then over time Mercia can provide further funding to the most promising companies, by deploying direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet.

The Group has a strong UK footprint through its regional offices, 19 university partnerships and extensive personal networks, providing it with access to high-quality deal flow. Mercia currently has c.£800million of assets under management and, since its IPO in December 2014, has invested over £96million into its direct investment portfolio.

Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic “MERC”.

About Gresham House Ventures

Gresham House Ventures is a growth equity investor specialised in scaling businesses with business models driven by technology, customer insight or service excellence.

Gresham House Ventures aims to work with ambitious management teams who want the support of a flexible long-term investor who brings capital, insight and expertise.

The team has been working together for over 10 years and has made over 100 investments into growth businesses.

Gresham House Asset Management is the FCA authorised operating business of Gresham House plc, a London Stock Exchange quoted specialist alternative asset manager. Gresham House is committed to operating responsibly and sustainably, taking the long view in delivering sustainable investment solutions.