Mishcon de Reya has increased its investment in Thirdfort, a proptech/legal tech startup that in 2018 was a member of its MDR Lab, following a new £1m ($1.32m) funding round for the company.
Additional investors, among others, included: James Meekings and Andy Mullinger, co-founders of Funding Circle, and David Rutter, founder of R3. Total funding has now reached £2.7m ($3.55m). The company classified this as a ‘Seed-plus’ round.
Mishcon’s total investment amount has not been made public, but at some point in the future it’s no doubt hoped it will generate a healthy return for the equity partners of the law firm.
The cash will be used by the property transaction and remote ID/deal security company to capitalise on increasing demand from law firms as the impact of the Covid-19 crisis continues to push lawyers to avoid physical meetings to manage ID checks and handle property deals.
The FCA-regulated Thirdfort uses document scanning and facial recognition technology to streamline identity and source of funds checks carried out by lawyers.
The business said that it 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.
Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and Managing Director, concluded: ‘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.’