Seven startups developing solutions in document automation, smart contracts and AI-driven knowledge management have been announced as the first participants in Auctus – Allens Legal Accelerator.
Auctus – Allens Legal Accelerator received more than 120 applications from legaltech and regtech startups around the world for the eight-week virtual program. The final seven were chosen from a shortlist of 15 who pitched their offering to a panel of expert judges from Allens and Collective Campus, which was engaged to help attract and source potential accelerator candidates.
The startups - which are headquartered in four different countries - will now work with mentors and experts from Allens on their legal, growth and innovation strategies as well as attending masterclasses, testing and receiving feedback on their products from the firm, and participating in facilitated strategic introductions to Allens' extensive networks. For some startups there may be opportunities to discuss further strategic engagement with the firm or potential investors at the conclusion of the accelerator.
'Our first cohort of startups blew us away with the potentially transformative solutions they're building to some of the most pressing issues faced by our firm and our clients,' said Penelope Barr, Allens' Head of Legal Product Lab.
'We are excited by the potential of our first group of startups to not only add to our own legal tech offering, but to meaningfully contribute to the Australian legal landscape more broadly.'
‘When startups stand on the shoulders of a giant like Allens, they both see further and get to their destinations faster, and I’m looking forward to watching the journey unfold with the crop of startups that were selected,' said Steve Glaveski, CEO of Collective Campus.
The startups include:
- Avvoka: a next-generation document automation, negotiation and analytics tool for in-house legal, law firms and business teams;
- BuildSort: a smart legal contract platform initially targeting the construction sector;
- Hutly: a smart contract platform that is simplifying contract management with a way for general tenancy agreements to be completed, issued, tracked, and digitally signed in minutes;
- Inpact: an AI-powered enterprise software platform that turns contracts into structured, easily-analysable data to uncover new business insights;
- Summize: a lightweight assistant to the contract lifecycle which creates instant, easy-to-read summaries of uploaded contracts;
- Syntheia: an end-to-end knowledge solution that helps to collect, manage, share and apply knowledge from documents and experts; and
- Wage Buddy: a legal technology platform that simplifies Australian Fair Work Awards by analysing, interpreting and codifying Awards to facilitate automated reasoning.
Allens has ranked in the top 10 most innovative professional services firms in the AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies list for the past three years, and works extensively with the startup community through its Allens Accelerate practice for startups, scaleups and investors.