Shovel: Major growth plans
An AI-first law firm that is planning to automate much of the conveyancing process – using AI agents clients can speak to – has raised £2m in seed funding ahead of its launch this summer.
Keith is the brainchild of three serial entrepreneurs: Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman, who founded plant-based food brand THIS, and Sam Tucker, who started hybrid scheduling platform Common Surface.
Well-known solicitor Eddie Goldsmith, former chair of the Conveyancing Association, is a strategic advisor and non-executive director.
Backed VC – which also supported THIS and in the past legal tech platform Legl – led Keith’s seed round, with Breega and several angel investors also making up the £2m. Breega was a Series A funder of Thirdfort back in 2022.
Keith is seeking authorisation by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) – “We think they might be the better option for the sort of disruptive and cutting-edge technologies that we’re hoping to introduce,” Mr Shovel told Legal Futures – but will in time look to move to the Solicitors Regulation Authority as it branches into other areas of legal practice.
The plan is to scale up at a speed traditional law firms could not manage, Mr Shovel explained, because the technology broke the link between taking on more work and having to recruit staff to handle it.
Initially, a fee-earner working at Keith should be able to oversee 500 files at a time, five times or more than a typical caseload at a traditional law firm, he said.
Mr Shovel recounted how he turned his focus to conveyancing after having a “shocking” experience in buying a house a year ago, at around the time he and Mr Sharman were taking a step back from THIS.
“I was blown away by how clunky the process was, and how no technology was being incorporated to help.”
People will be able to speak to Keith – so called because Mr Shovel likes the name and also to “humanise” the technology – even when they are just looking for a quote. The quote will be tailored by the system carrying out a title and Google Maps searches, among other checks.
“The level of sophistication of these agents is way beyond what most, if not all, people would expect,” he said. “We’ve gone to the stage really quickly in a period of a few months where it’s quite difficult to discern between a person and Keith.”
New clients will speak to a human as part of the onboarding process but will be introduced on the call to Keith, which in fact is a network of 38 specialised AI agents that handle different parts of the process, in many instances simultaneously, rather than waiting days for a fee-earner to action.
Keith’s client service agent will be available 24/7 via phone and WhatsApp, able to answer questions, provide updates and take actions instantly. Administrative tasks that take up a lot of conveyancers’ time, such as educating clients on the process and chasing the other side, will be handled by the technology.
Mr Shovel stressed that the agents were built to operate within “strict parameters” that will flag any issues to a member of the team, and with human oversight built in where required by the CLC.
The expectation is that about 80% of the process will be automated but critical points, including transferring funds, will at least initially be handled by humans.
“The regulator will likely want us to have human oversight at more points than are in practice needed, but that’s fine by us,” he said.
“Obviously, our first priority is to comply and be safe. And then the second priority is to be super efficient… We’re convinced that we will be the most automated firm in conveyancing when we launch at the end of summer.
“Conveyancing will still be at times quite frustrating, but I think we’re controlling more controllables than a traditional firm by quite a big margin.”
They reckon Keith will reduce transaction times by around 70%, even allowing for delays on the other side.
Another reason to choose the CLC was that it allows licensed conveyancers to act on both sides, subject to strict rules, and Mr Shovel said he and his colleagues were “pretty excited” about how quickly a transaction could be completed in such circumstances.
The mooted government reforms to the home-buying process would also be a boost and Mr Shovel said the next iteration of the Keith later this year or next would be “a ‘Keith Turbo’ type offering where we will encourage sellers to get searches done and have as much information upfront as possible”.
Keith is currently recruiting lawyers – it hopes to have three on board for launch – as well as other staff like engineers. A head of conveyancing has been appointed but their name has not yet been disclosed.
Mr Shovel was also encouraged by the response of the professional indemnity insurer he was negotiating with. “Their attitude is that, if your tech works, and we don’t see a reason why it won’t, you’ll make fewer mistakes than a traditional firm.”
He was confident too that lenders would not seek Keith’s risk profile as different from other law firms. “We plan to be no different in the eyes of stakeholders than a forward-thinking traditional firm that’s got some software tools that they use to help make them more efficient.”
There was no ‘black box’ and the firm was transparent about how the technology worked.
Acquisitions were unlikely while Keith focused on conveyancing work but Mr Shovel predicted that they would form part of the growth strategy in other practice areas, “basically taking firms, adding efficiency, adding Keith’s technology, and then rolling them up essentially into one bigger firm”.
This would enable them “to reach much bigger scale, much, much quicker”.
He added: “I can be very cocky about it in theory, but let’s see how we go and practice because I’m sure it will be really difficult. But that is our plan anyway.”
Andre De Haes, partner at Backed VC, added: “For most people, dealing with a solicitor means waiting, chasing and not knowing what’s going on. Keith removed those pain-points using technology, and we’re hugely excited to back the business.”