We are delighted to announce that Molten has led a $7 million growth round in Apperio, a leading provider of legal spend analytics and matter tracking software.
The company will use the funding to further develop its product for corporate counsel and meet the growing demand for new functionality from law firms. Apperio will also accelerate its expansion to the U.S. market.
Molten was joined in the growth round by Notion Capital, IQ Capital, Nextlaw Ventures, Volution and Hambro Perks who provided venture debt. Both Volution and Hambro Perks are new investors included in this round. The announcement today brings the total funding Apperio has raised to date to $19.9 million.
Apperio provides in-house counsel with a comprehensive view of its legal spending on a single dashboard. Its legal spend management platform aggregates and analyses both historical and current legal spend, including law firm work-in-progress (WIP) / accruals and provides streamlined invoice approval workflow. The software does this, in part, by uniquely connecting directly to the practice management systems of law firms.
With Apperio, in-house lawyers and legal operations can see in real-time when the budget for a given legal matter meets a certain threshold. This enables them to initiate a conversation with their law firms about the course of legal work before it exceeds the budget. It may well be that a given matter merits increased spending, but Apperio gives in-house teams the control to make that decision rather than be surprised by an invoice.
The product quickly drew interest from in-house lawyers working in private equity ranging from boutique PE firms like Epiris – to global giants like EQT. It has also gained traction among the broader legal market and has more than 60 corporate counsel customers today.
Today, there are more than 250 global law firms connected to the Apperio platform. These firms are finding that facilitating this level of transparency builds trust that strengthens relationships with clients. As such, many are beginning to request premium features in the product and this growth round will enable Apperio to meet those market needs.
Richard Marsh, Chief Portfolio Officer at Molten Ventures said: “Apperio has focussed impressively on where and how its technology delivers value to customers, and now, how to expand that.
“Over the past year, product development has expanded Apperio’s remit from legal expenditure into other major professional services relationships, including accounting and audit. This has significantly grown the value potential for customers and the globally addressable market for the company.”
David Eldridge, Non-Executive Chairman of Apperio, said: “It’s no secret venture funding has slowed across technology sectors. That Apperio closed on funding with both new and existing investors, in this environment, speaks volumes to the company’s unique position in the legal technology sector, the value the company is delivering to customers and the significant opportunities ahead.”
Nicholas d’Adhemar, Chief Executive Officer, Apperio, said: “We’re deeply grateful to our investors whose commitment has enabled Apperio to think differently about this enduring problem of transparency in the business of law. We’re looking forward to their continued collaboration in this next chapter as we build out our legal spend management software and strive to strengthen the relationship between corporate counsel and their law firms.”