US VC Insight Partners backs Kiwi legal tech in $16m series A

New York private equity venture Insight Partners has made another investment down south, leading a NS$17 million (A$16.2m) series A into New Zealand legal tech LawVu.

AirTree Ventures returned for this round, having been part of a A$2.3 million pre-series A in May that also saw investments from US-based Shasta Ventures and NZ Growth Capital Partners.

The capital will be used to drive a further push into the US market, already a key revenue driver for the business, with offices in the States on the drawing board along with further platform development.

The startup helps push in-house legal teams into the digital age. Australia is also a key market for the business.

The investment is the Kiwi venture is at the smaller end of Insight’s recent investments Down Under, having recently backed Queensland unicorn Octoptus Deploy as well as SafetyCulture and Employment Hero

The investment from Insight Partners follows other recent large investments it has made in Australia. Last month the VC led a $140 million series E in Employment Hero and in May, led a $95 million round into Sydney unicorn SafetyCulture.

In April, Insight tipped the entire US$172.5 million (A$222m) of the first external capital for Brisbane software startup Octopus Deploy.

Insight Partners managing director Rachel Geller will join LawVu’s board following the investment.

“LawVu’s global growth speaks volumes to its future as a business and ability to provide high-value outcomes to legal teams,” she said.

“Its combination of intuitive user experience and excellent customer feedback make LawVu a stand out in the legal tech industry.”

The business now has contracts with companies such as Telstra, AMP, Linktree, Expedia, PwC and San Francisco tech company Instacart, and now operates in more than 30 countries.

LawVu is a cloud-based platform built specifically for in-house legal teams that provides a legal workspace that brings all the technology tools an in-house legal team needs into a beautifully unified experience that their customers love using every day.

The platform allows teams to manage all their matters, contracts, documents, e-billing, outsourced work, and reporting from one cloud-based, secure and connected platform, with a growing ecosystem of connected third-party tools that are critical to a high-performing in-house function.