Entrepreneur behind BBC iPlayer secures $4m for legal startup platform

Startup fundraising platform SeedLegals has closed a $4 million Series A round aimed at accelerating its international expansion.

In a round led by venture capital firm Index Ventures with participation from Kima Ventures, The Family and existing investor Seedcamp, the firm secured investments to expand its proposition on a global scale.

Based in London, SeedLegals was founded in 2017 by tech entrepreneur Anthony Rose, who is known for his work launching BBC iPlayer, and angel investor Laurent Laffy, whose portfolio includes brands such as Graze and Secret Escapes.

The platform aims to support companies by managing the entire fundraising process and all related legal documents, including negotiating terms sheets, shareholder agreements, cap tables, stock option allocations, EIS approvals, hiring agreements and NDAs.

Anthony Rose, co-founder and CEO at SeedLegals, commented: “Our focus is on helping to simplify fundraising, and we’ve had an amazing response from startups who find the whole process quite painful.

“We’ve removed the complexity, unnecessary middlemen, standardised and automated the processes, and that has really resonated with both founders and investors.”

He continued: “However, we believe fundraising is just the start. The same approach can be applied to many other legal processes through the journey of a business. The goal of SeedLegals is to empower all parties with data and a modern technology platform, letting them focus on building the business and serving their customers.”

Hannah Seal from Index Ventures added: “We closed this round on SeedLegals and have been impressed with the speed and ease of use. For startups who spend thousands on legal fees on agreements that vary little from company to company, this is an absolute no-brainer.

“The ambition is to expand the same model to other areas of business, helping startups retain legal budget for strategic work rather than administrative execution.”