Three legal sector companies have joined Tech Nation’s Upscale growth programme: legal AI pioneer ThoughtRiver, legal doc provider SeedLegals, and Lexoo, the ALSP.
(And, if you included ‘deathtech’ company Farewill, which provides online wills; and also IP and identity startup, Everledger, in the legal world then we could put that number at five.)
They are part of a 30-strong group of companies that join the UK Government-backed incubator/accelerator – with the goal in this case to help scale up businesses that have already gained some traction.
Over six months, the 30 companies will receive over 60 hours of support, delivered by over 20 scale coaches. It’s free, and they don’t take an equity stake in any businesses that join.
You also get workshops, are part of meet-ups and lots of other networking events. In fact, it looks like networking and learning from peers is really the main advantage here.
Tech Nation is a bit different to other growth programmes in that it is both publicly and privately funded. It receives public funding from the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Its funding from government for 2019-20 has been £7.1m. This represents roughly 80% of its funding. The rest is generated from sponsorships and paid-for educational programmes such as Immersion.
Tech Nation has also been brought in to help run the UK’s Law Tech Delivery Panel, with the organisation’s Jenifer Swallow now in the role of Director of the group.
Is being part of the Tech Nation programme a big deal? Well, there are a lot of incubator/accelerator-type growth projects out there. However, this one is especially prestigious – and the cohort members will be part of a process that has seen companies such as digital bank Monzo also take part in the past.
Tech Nation reckons being part of its programme really helps your business. They believe being part of it will increase your chances of getting funding, and they say: ‘Average revenues of Upscale cohort members have increased by 64% over 3 years, while the average number of employees has risen by 48%.’
Here’s what Tim Pullan, Founder & CEO, ThoughtRiver thinks: ‘We’re delighted to have been included in Upscale 5.0. The whole ThoughtRiver team and I are hugely excited at the networking, exposure and learning opportunities on offer via the programme. Upscale was one of the only programmes which we felt could deliver true value in terms of rapid scaling, and improving our awareness of projects, initiatives and opportunities not currently on our radar.’
‘From a legal services perspective, we are at the forefront of a huge wave of innovation in the UK and globally, so Upscale is an ideal programme to be involved with, giving us the chance to unlock further opportunities in a dynamic market,’ he concluded.
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And if you fancy perusing the full list of the quite diverse cohort 5.0, then here it is:
allplants – London – @allplants
allplants deliver delicious meals straight to your door, making plant-based living easy, convenient, delicious, and on people’s schedules. Created so both people and the planet can thrive, allplants meals are chef-prepared, flash frozen and totally plant-based.
AMPLYFI – Cardiff – @amplyfitech
AMPLYFI is using AI and machine learning to revolutionise global business intelligence and market research. Their learning platforms unlock the entire internet to generate unprecedented business insights through groundbreaking products. AMPLYFI analyse both the surface and deep web to help businesses proactively plan for future disruptions.
Arctic Shores – Manchester – @arctic_shores
Flying the flag for diversity, inclusion and equality, Arctic Shores makes the recruitment process more engaging, objective and fair. Using data-driven psychometric tests that combine neuroscience, AI and game technology, they try to eliminate bias when it comes to hiring and promoting people and look past the CV, focusing on potential rather than just experience, background or seniority.
Chattermill – London – @chattermillAI
Revolutionising the customer experience, Chattermill uses AI to help large organisations understand and improve how they interact with their consumers. Chattermill analyses customer feedback at scale and automatically identifies specific recommendations for how their clients can continuously deliver better services and products to their customers.
Eagle Genomics – Cambridge – @eaglegen
Helping companies make more accurate and credible scientific claims, Eagle Genomics’ uses machine learning to transform raw data into actionable insights that drive scientific decision making. Improving brand perception and research and development processes, Eagle Genomics’ unique expertise gives insights that enable quick assessment of product potential, mitigate risks and reduces time to market.
eporta – London – @eporta_
The leading B2B platform for interior design professionals worldwide, eporta has transformed the $700bn per year interior design industry. eporta’s platform helps interior designers, property developers, architects, hospitality owners and more, to power their projects and design seamlessly.
Everledger – London – @everledgerio
Tackling issues of verification and piracy, Everledger’s technology creates a secure and permanent digital record of an asset’s origin, characteristics and ownership on their private blockchain. This transparency helps industries respond to growing expectations for sustainable, verifiable sourcing.
Farewill – London – @farewill
Changing the way the world deals with death, Farewill helps the UK sort out legally binding wills and probate from the comfort of their own home, quickly, easily and sensitively, while removing the expense and hassle of seeing a solicitor in person.
Florence – London – @WeAreFlorence
Connecting the care industry, Florence is the marketplace for flexible staffing in the care sector. With Florence, care homes can fill their vacancies with the perfect workers, whilst nurses and carers are empowered to take control of their working lives.
Kheiron Medical – London – @kheironmedical
Helping doctors find breast cancer earlier and more accurately, Kheiron Medical works with radiologists, and uses data and machine learning to build products that help breast radiologists in their daily practice. Improving accuracy in the field, it also addresses a growing global workforce shortage.
LandTech – London – @LandTechUK
Revamping the world of property development, LandTech helps you find land, get through planning and raise funding in a more streamlined, convenient way. With over 1,500 clients, of which 80% are SME property developers, to date they have added an additional 10,000 homes to the UK housing market.
Lexoo – London – @Lexoo
Providing corporations with a true alternative to traditional global law firms, Lexoo delivers next generation legal services by combining tech, process and a network of over 1000 former BigLaw lawyers in 70 countries. Work is delivered to a higher standard, more quickly and at roughly 50% of the cost.
Neurovalens – Belfast – @neurovalens
Aiming to transform the world of neurology, Neurovalens wants to treat global neurological health issues by influencing the brain and nervous system using safe and non-invasive technology. This technology aims to replace drugs as the first-line treatments for obesity, diabetes, insomnia and anxiety.
Oddbox – London – @OddboxLDN
Over ⅓ of farmed fruit and veg goes to waste either because they’re surplus to requirements or don’t make strict supermarket requirements on shape, size, or colour. Oddbox helps reduce this structural problem in the industry. With every medium Oddbox, an average of 7 kgs of veg is saved from going to waste, as well as 14 kg of CO2 emissions (the equivalent of 35 miles in a car) and 1,722 litres of water (the equivalent of 12 showers).
Panintelligence – Leeds – @panintelligence
Delivering data solutions that enhance ways of working, Panintelligence’s predictive analytics and data visualisation software is designed to be white-labelled by software vendors, who use it to accelerate their roadmap. Based in Leeds, they have over 100 partners across all verticals and 200,000 users globally.
Peanut – London – @peanut_app
Empowering women all over the world to unite, Peanut is a social network for women, connecting them through their experiences with fertility and motherhood. It enables women at similar life stages to meet, connect and form meaningful communities.
Pimberly – Manchester – @pimberlypim
Changing the game in SaaS, Pimberly delivers an immersive, hyper personalised, omni-channel product experience for millions of products. Made for Product Information Management and Digital Asset Management, it’s used by manufacturers, distributors and retailers to market and sell products across multiple sales channels.
Plum – London – @withplum
Helping over 500,000 people in the UK grow their money, Plum is an AI assistant that boosts your bank balance. It works by using automation to save, switch bills and invest in a personalised way. With the help of Plum, savers can be £186k better off over their lifetime.
Seatfrog – London – @Seatfrog
Fancy an upgrade? Seatfrog is the travel app that is here to make upgrading your seat amazing. Seatfrog’s mission is to take every journey beyond the ordinary, and it’s starting by helping passengers live a little more, with a simple, honest and stress-free way to upgrade their seat.
SeedLegals – London – @seedlegals
The world’s first and only automated legal service for funding rounds, SeedLegals make it super easy for startups to raise investment and manage company equity at a fraction of the cost of traditional service providers. No paper. No law firms. No accountants. Everything’s done digitally on their platform. Launching back in 2016, today they are the largest closer of funding rounds in the UK.
SoPost – Newscastle – @sopost
SoPost helps brands run the most powerful product sampling campaigns in the world, with a focus on relevance, data and analytics. SoPost gets physical trial products into consumers’ hands through media campaigns, influencer partnerships, and content. It works with hundreds of brands including L’Oreal and Estee Lauder, and sends one sample every couple of seconds.
Spirable – London – @spirable_hq
Generating personalised, data-driven brand videos at scale, Spirable works with world-leading brands to increase engagement and conversion. Videos are personalised to an individual level, enriched with data from live data-feeds, and delivered through social channels and CRM platforms.
ThoughtRiver – Cambridge – @ThoughtRiverCI
ThoughtRiver solves a fundamental problem for lawyers: you simply don’t know which part of a contract to focus on without reading it all. Pre-screening technology automates the review process by reading the contract, answering key legal questions and then serving up detailed advice and guided remediation within Microsoft Word.
Thriva – London – @thrivahealth
Health tracking made simple, Thriva helps you find out what’s happening inside your body with a simple finger-prick blood test. Samples are reviewed by an NHS approved lab, and a doctor walks you through your results, giving personalised advice on your health. Regular testing enables customers to keep track of how their lifestyle decisions actually affect them internally over time.
TrustedHousesitters – Brighton & Hove – @Housesitting
Empowering thousands of people to travel while pets stay happy at home, TrustedHousesitters enables the mutual exchange of house and pet sitting. In return, trustworthy house and pet sitters can often find luxurious homes to ‘sit’ for free. From villas in Tuscany, apartments in NYC, to beach houses in Caribbean, with members in over 100 countries, this is the largest house and pet sitting platform globally.
Tyk – London – @tyk_io
Tyk is an open-source API Gateway that is fast, scalable and modern. Powering microservice platform enterprises across the globe, with offices in London, Singapore and Atlanta, and team members in 20+ countries. Out of the box, Tyk offers an API Management Platform with an API Gateway, API Analytics, Developer Portal and API Management Dashboard.
Vidsy – London – @vidsyhq
Powering mobile video ad creation for the world’s leading brands, Vidsy’s technology and global community of 6,000+ vetted creators and fully managed services, empowers brands to intelligently transform their digital advertising for an ever-evolving world of mobile video.
WhiteHat – London – @WhiteHatGB
Diversifying the world’s future leaders, WhiteHat is building an outstanding alternative to university. It works with some of the world’s best employers to identify, hire, and develop diverse talent through apprenticeships. Every apprentice gets access to a thriving on and offline community and an individual coach to help ensure they’re successful in their chosen career.
Zen Educate – London – @ZenEducate
Moving away from inefficient recruitment agencies, Zen Educate is an online platform that matches teachers with available supply teaching roles in schools. An accredited social enterprise, Zen Educate aim to save the education system £100s of millions a year.
Zencargo – London – @zencargoltd
Helping the world’s fastest-growing businesses turn their supply chains into a competitive advantage, Zencargo collects real-time data on the progress of each product and acts as a single version of truth for teams to uncover insights and opportunities. Expert consultants use these learnings to create, implement and iterate bespoke solutions that increase revenue, optimise working capital, control costs and reduce environmental impact.