Riley: Global ambitions
The Link App, the communications application for law firms and their clients created by former The Apprentice candidate Lauren Riley, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £300,000 as it continues to establish itself.
It has already raised nearly half of that, with Sir Nigel Knowles, the chairman of DWF, putting in £20,000 as he takes over as chairman of the company.
The Link App is designed to enable law firms to update clients on cases quickly, using a pre-populated list of standard case updates, or tailoring messages to suit individual needs.
The Link App is live in the UK, Ireland and South Africa, and has now racked up 1,100 law firm clients. The company said 88% of law firm clients installed the app when they were registered, while 94% of notifications were read by clients. The ability for clients to use the app or web portal to complete forms was the most requested feature
This is its third round of funding as it looks to scale up in 2018. The Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund, which specialises in early stage investments, has put in £100,000 of the £145,000 raised so far on the Seedrs crowdfunding platform – which itself recently agreed a deal with the Law Society to connect solicitors with lawtech start-ups looking for investment.
Ms Riley, a family law solicitor by background, revealed that the company was to come under the wing of an unnamed Silicon Valley accelerator in early 2018 amid plans to expand the technology to the healthcare, property and financial services sectors. She outlined a vision to take it global.
“There are so many lawyers doing amazing work for their clients but the satisfaction levels in this profession are too low. Half the time this is because clients do not know what is happening on their matter or how hard the legal team are working to achieve results,” she said.
Sir Nigel, former global co-chairman of DLA Piper, was an original investor in The Link App and first joined as a member of its advisory board last year.
He said: “The legal services sector needs to remain profitable, it needs to work smarter and The Link App allows lawyers to work smarter.”
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