Bootstrapped & profitable legal tech startup Atticus takes on $10.8 million from VCs in first raise after 7 years

Documents compliance checking startup Atticus has banked $10.84 million in its first external raise, with VCs Blackbird and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital buying in.

The Melbourne legal tech – named after the To Kill a Mockingbird lawyer – was founded in 2017 recovering corporate lawyer Saul Wakerman and former Palantir software engineers Misha Wakerman and Mitchell Brunton.

The raise values the business at up to $90 million.

They developed document review and verification software used by the world’s largest law firms and listed entities to fact-check documents such as IPO prospectuses, ESG statements and annual reports before they’re released publicly.

Bootstrapped until now and already profitable, Atticus CEO Thom Mackey said they plan to maintain sustainable growth from revenue and use the external capital as a strategic reserve to expand product offerings and for international expansion UK and other jurisdictions.

“Atticus was founded to create a faster and more accurate way to solve the time consuming and mundane process of legal verification of critical corporate and legal documents, mitigating core compliance risks for our global clients,” he said.

“Hundreds of investor relations, company secretary and legal teams over five continents are trusting Atticus’s verification software with their highest stakes work. We’ve had directors and audit & risk committee members asking for our products by name as a sign of quality and trust.

“Our products give them the confidence that their documents are accurate and verified by providing an auditable process that centralises documents, maintains version control and reduces manual error. Users love Atticus because it’s easy to use with no setup time and saves teams the pain of manually tracking this high-stakes information across multiple spreadsheets, emails, and documents.”

Atticus has captured the minds and wallets of 90% of Australia’s corporate legal firms, including King & Wood Mallesons, Gilbert + Tobin, Herbert Smith Freehills, Ashurst, Clayton Utz, and Allens, as well as nearly a third of the UK’s top 30 law firms and has doubled its revenue annually since 2021. By 2022 the platform was used to verify over 1,300 Australian disclosure documents, including half of all ASX IPO listings as well as a third of listings on the London Stock Exchange. The startup counts BHP and CBA among its listed clients.

Skip Capital CEO Kim Jackson said Atticus provides a crucial solution to the once time-consuming manual process of verifying legal and investor documents.

“Given the time it saves and the ease of using the platform, customers show a level of excitement for Atticus that is incredibly rare. This excitement is a testament to a high-performing team with a deep understanding of the problem,” she said.

“Given the tidal wave of regulatory, compliance, and ESG governance requirements, we believe that Atticus is a vital player in helping companies and legal teams deal with these mounting challenges.”