Leading Kiwi VC Movac backs LawVu’s global expansion and R&D into AI capabilities
Tauranga, New Zealand, 21 September 2023 - LawVu, the category defining legal workspace for in-house legal teams around the globe, has completed a $14 million AUD investment from Movac, New Zealand’s most experienced technology investor venture capital fund, in its latest funding round.
The investment will fuel LawVu’s rapid expansion to meet growing demand internationally — particularly across Australia, the US and UK — and further cement LawVu’s position as a category leader in a legal tech market set to be valued over $40 billion USD by 2030.
Additional funds will also accelerate the startup’s research and development (R&D) in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, helping LawVu leverage its AI-powered features to optimise operations, enhance collaboration, and drive efficiency for in-house legal professionals.
“LawVu was born out of a critical gap in the industry where organisations’ legal functions worked across fragmented systems like email and word documents. Our legal workspace solves this by consolidating their work in one place,” said Sam Kidd, CEO and co-founder of LawVu. “The strong customer appetite we’ve received for our unique offering validates the untapped opportunity in the global market — to help superpower every in-house legal team around the world”.
"We’ve been relentless in extending our international foothold despite the economic headwinds. Having Movac come on board with their support signals immense confidence in our mission, as we accelerate our global expansion.”
LawVu’s 2023 In-house Legal Technology Report revealed that 61 per cent of in-house legal teams spend over one hour per day jumping between systems to gain a complete view of work and determine priorities, highlighting the need for consolidated technology stacks that are built especially for legal teams.
Jason Graham, General Partner at Movac, said “LawVu has continued to go from strength to strength, with incredible potential for growth and disruption in the legal sector and its traditional way of working. Our depth of experience investing in iconic Kiwi startups such as Vertical SaaS stars Vend, Timely and Unleashed meant we knew LawVu was a natural fit within our Growth Fund portfolio. We look forward to our partnership with Sam and the team as they continue to pave the way as a global category leader, representing New Zealand on the world stage.”
LawVu has also recently gained global market recognition, debuting as a major player in the IDC MarketScape’s Worldwide Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) Software 2023 Vendor Assessment. The accolade comes off the heels of hiring David Lancelot as Chief Legal Officer, who brings with him more than 20 years of experience building, leading and transforming legal functions internationally across various industries including Magex.com, QVC UK, and eBay Classifieds.
Headquartered in Tauranga, LawVu is committed to being based in New Zealand — despite 93 per cent of its revenue being generated offshore. About 65 per cent of LawVu’s 125+ employees are based in New Zealand, and the startup recently invested in Wellington offices as part of their national growth strategy to attract and hire Kiwi talent.
LawVu’s total funding to date now sits at around $55 million NZD, with existing investors, AirTree Ventures and Insight Partners participating in previous funding rounds. The company’s customer base across 15 countries includes household names such as PWC, Telstra, Estee Lauder, and Linktree.
About LawVuLawVu’s legal workspace is the category defining software platform for in-house legal teams, enabling them to be more productive, and connect with the business and its outcomes. The unified suite of productivity and collaboration tools allows in-house lawyers to manage all their matters, contracts, documents, vendors, and reporting from one cloud-based, secure and connected platform. With a quick implementation and its user-friendly interface, the legal team is able to become more productive right away. Founded in 2015 and based in Tauranga, LawVu develops and distributes its SaaS platform to customers around the world including PWC, Splunk, Telstra, Estee Lauder, Joe and the Juice, Shaeffler, Linktree. For more information, visit lawvu.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Movac
Founded in 1998, Movac is New Zealand's most experienced and successful venture and growth capital firm. By providing capital, experience and networks, Movac provides support to Kiwi founders and leaders wanting to accelerate their tech businesses. Previous successes include Vend, Unleashed Software, Timely, Aroa Biosurgery, eBus, Givealittle, GreenButton and Trade Me.Movac has recently raised Growth Fund 6, a $200m fund focusing on revenue generating businesses looking to fuel expansion, and Emerge Fund 4, a $30m+ fund focusing on disruptive early stage venture opportunities.
