Lupl has completed a $14m funding round as it readies for its 2021 launch. Lupl is being incubated through its development by a trio of international law firms, CMS, Cooley and Rajah & Tann Asia, working with input from an advisory board of 16 leading in-house lawyers from major multinationals.
Lupl is an ‘open industry platform for legal matters’ that uses matter synchronization software to bring together ‘all of the people, conversations, documents and data for legal matters’ in one place. In short, it’s a collaboration and tech integration platform that seeks to make digitally-based legal work easier for all involved.
There is also a wider testing group that includes Slaughter and May, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Khaitan & Co and One Essex Court. The group said around 500 companies are hoping to join the platform.
All very good….but what does it offer in reality? Here is what the company says it allows you to do:
- ‘Stay on top of who’s doing what across your matters and how it’s going. In real time. Wherever you are. Organise, track and manage everything in one place.
- [Provides] a growing range of integrations. An open API. A growing developer community. Everyone can work together through a single platform, using their systems of choice.
- Architected from the ground up using privacy and security by design principles. Legal sector compliance features like conflict checking and protection of legal privilege are baked in.
- Works as well on mobile as it does at your desk.’
Jeff Green, Lupl’s new CEO, and previously Senior Managing Director at Ankura, said: ‘I’m thrilled to be joining the team as we complete the final stages of beta testing and prepare for full launch later this year. Raising USD 14 million from our investors reflects the incredible momentum which Lupl has built up over the last nine months. I am excited about the continued growth of our team and community around this open industry platform that has the potential to transform the legal market for the better for all.’
Lupl’s latest funding round is in addition to the more than $10m raised prior to its beta launch, taking its overall funding to in excess of $25m.
During the beta, more than 30 development sprints have been completed and several hundred new product features have been added in response to user feedback from participating law firms and legal departments. Amongst others, these features include a ‘Knowledge Hub’, which provides a global repository of matter and workflow templates, designed to help users operationalise legal knowledge and repeatable process, and a data and analytics dashboard surfacing real-time analytics about legal matters.
Lupl is on track for a wider public release commencing from the beginning of April 2021. The initial focus will be accelerating the rollout of Lupl within participating organisations followed by a phased onboarding of legal departments and law firms.
Lupl has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore’s Ministry of Law to leverage the platform to advance the digitalisation of the legal sector in Singapore. This collaboration will begin with a series of industry engagement sessions in the first quarter of 2021.
Matt Pollins, Chief Commercial Officer, Lupl and a former partner and Head of TMT with CMS in Asia Pacific, added: ‘During our beta phase, we’ve been blown away by the interest in our open industry platform amongst legal departments, law firms, technology and knowledge providers.’