Our January 2021 Update

Lupl secures $14 million funding round and management hires as it prepares for 2021 launch

• USD 14 million funding round takes Lupl’s overall funding past USD 25 million, making it one of the most well-backed legal technology start-ups at its stage of development.

• Over 500 firms and corporates join Lupl’s waitlist, with a growing list of technology and knowledge integration partnerships.

• Lupl has 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.

• Lupl’s open industry platform is built with “bring your own system” technology that aims to synchronize all the moving parts of a legal matter – the conversations, the documents, the scope, the knowledge, the data.

• Key hires are now on board, including Jeff Green as CEO, as Lupl prepares for 2021 launch.

Jeff Green, Lupl’s new CEO, comments:

“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.”

Funding

Lupl has completed a USD 14 million funding round as it builds momentum for a 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 blue chip multinationals through to the world’s fastest growing tech companies. The wider testing group includes Slaughter and May, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Khaitan & Co and One Essex Court.

Lupl’s latest funding round is in addition to the more than USD 10 million raised prior to its beta launch, taking its overall funding to in excess of USD 25 million and making it amongst the most well-backed legal technology start-ups at its stage of development.

Development

Lupl has been in worldwide private beta testing since March 2020, supported by a group of leading law firms and corporations. Together, the group behind Lupl represents 10,000+ lawyers in 100+ jurisdictions (https://loopl.net/community). Over 500 companies in more than 50 countries are currently represented on its beta waitlist.

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.

Partnerships

Lupl has 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.

Over 100 other industry partnerships are in progress as part of Lupl’s open industry platform vision, with “bring your own system” technology that works with the tools lawyers already use today.

These partnerships span enterprise communication and collaboration tools, document management systems, pricing and scoping tools, data and analytics tools and standards, and industry knowledge libraries. Further details of current and future partnerships will be announced in the coming months.

Management Team

Lupl has strengthened its management team with Jeff Green joining as Chief Executive Officer working alongside Matt Pollins as Chief Commercial Officer. Cheryl Wilson Griffin has also joined as Chief Customer Officer. By the end of 2021, Lupl expects to have a team of more than 75 people around the world.

Jeff Green is an industry veteran who joins Lupl following a 30-year career with leading public and private companies, during which he built and led businesses providing consulting and technology services to law firms, corporate legal departments and other clients. In addition to advising clients on complex disputes and investigations, Jeff has held segment and practice leadership as well as executive leadership roles.

Matt Pollins is an international technology lawyer and former partner and Head of TMT with CMS in Asia Pacific.

Cheryl Wilson Griffin is an industry thought leader with 18 years’ experience in the rollout and adoption of cutting-edge legal technology solutions.

Matt Pollins, Chief Commercial Officer, Lupl says:

“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. This is a pivotal year for Lupl and I’m excited to be joined by Jeff and Cheryl as we start to scale up our global team to launch the platform in 2021.”

Notes to Editors:

About Lupl

Lupl is an open industry platform for legal matters being developed by a group of legal departments and law firms from around the world. Its matter synchronization software brings together all of the people, conversations, documents and data for legal matters in one place.

About CMS

Founded in 1999, CMS is an integrated, multi-jurisdictional organisation that offers full-service legal and tax advice. With more than 70 offices in over 40 countries across the world and more than 4,800 lawyers, CMS has long-standing expertise both in advising in its local jurisdictions and across borders.

About Cooley LLP

Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation, where innovation meets the law. Cooley has 1,100+ lawyers across 16 offices in the United States, Asia and Europe.

About Rajah & Tann Asia

Rajah & Tann Asia brings together leading law firms and lawyers in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, with each offering the highest standards of service to locally based clients while collectively having the capability to handle the most complex regional and cross-border transactions and to provide excellent legal counsel seamlessly across the region. With over 800 fee earners, all working towards one shared goal, we are lawyers who know Asia and who give our clients home advantage.

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Sabin, Lupl Communications & Marketing, + 44 7971 430244, victoria@loopl.net or Ingrid Valk at Headland Communications, +44 7717 827258