Legal-tech startup SpotDraft secures pre-Series A funding

Legal-tech startup SpotDraft has raised $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) in a pre-Series A round of funding led by venture capital firm 021 Capital, which is backed by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

SpotDraft said in a statement that Girish Mathrubootham, co-founder of software-as-a-service (SaaS) unicorn Freshworks; Karanpal Singh, founder of VC firm Hunch Ventures; Indus Khaitan of billing solutions provider Chargebee; Peeyush Ranjan, vice president-engineering at Google; and Singapore Angel Network had also participated in the round. 

Gurugram-based SpotDraft said it will use the fresh capital to grow its global footprint. It is planning to target both large as well as small and medium enterprises that are looking to cut their legal expenses. 

Run by Draft Spotting Technologies Ltd, SpotDraft offers technology-based solutions for complex legal dealings, including drafting, managing and storing paperwork online, analysing contracts and automating invoices, besides sending reminders and advice on legal compliance. 

The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate contract management. The platform identifies key clauses and legal information from contracts and compares them with internal legal standards to identify anomalies.

The company was founded in 2017 by Harvard Law School graduate Shashank Bijapur and former Google Classrooms technology lead Madhav Bhagat.

“Our platform can help companies create, analyse and manage legal contracts, all with zero human intervention,” said Bijapur.

A significant portion of SpotDraft’s business currently comes from European firms which utilise its tool to analyse compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the European Union’s data privacy law.

SpotDraft had in October 2017 raised seed funding of Rs 3.5 crore ($550,000) in a round led by Hunch Ventures.

The other investors backing the project were Spiral Ventures, 500 Startups, Singapore Angel Network and Citrus Payment Solutions co-founder Satyen Kothari. 

In another development in the legal-tech space, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, the country’s largest full-service law firm, earlier this week launched an incubator to scale and assist startups working in the domain.

021 Capital

021 Capital is a venture capital fund that was launched two years ago by Sailesh Tulshan, the personal investment adviser to the founders of homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart.

Tulshan is also the founder of Tsai Shen Capital, an investment advisory firm for individuals and large family offices. He was earlier associated with family office Client Associates and private lender HDFC Bank.

According to a report in The Economic Times published last month, 021 Capital raised about $32 million (Rs 222 crore) as it marked the first close of its debut fund.

021 Capital had previously invested in Bengaluru-based biotech startup Pandorum Technologies and packaged food startup Y-Cook.