Legal Raasta Technologies Pvt Ltd, which provides legal services to entrepreneurs, SMEs and professionals, is in advanced talks to raise Series A funding from two Bangalore-based venture capital firms, the founders told VCCircle.
The company, which runs its services through legalraasta.com, had raised $1 million (around Rs 6.7 crore) in angel funding from two high net worth individuals, Pravin Khandelwal and Yatin Kumar Jain, in April 2016.
The company is looking to raise Rs 20 crore ($2.9 million). According to Himanshu Jain, one of the co-founders of Legal Raasta, both VC firms have overseas offices and have made nearly 50 investments, each, in technology startups, including SaaS-based platforms, in India.
“The deal is expected to be closed within two weeks,†said Himanshu Jain. He, however, refused to identify the VC firms.
Jain, an ISB Hyderabad alumnus and former McKinsey consultant, had founded Legal Raasta in June 2015, along with Pulkit Jain, a chartered accountant, company secretary and former partner at a leading CA firm.
The company will use the fresh funds to build a cloud solution to simplify filing of Goods and Services Tax. “The features will include excel upload and app-based GST filing, among others,†said Pulkit Jain.
GST, which will subsume almost all indirect taxes in India, is seen as the single biggest tax reform in the country since Independence. It is all set for 1 July rollout.
“Our aim is to invest this money in technical and operational teams. We will scale-up the team from 80 to 200 over the next six months,†Pulkit Jain added.
Legal Raasta intends to serve its existing SME clients and over 80 lakh-plus potential SMEs, which will come under the GST regime. It has tied-up with the GST Network as an application service provider.
“We offer registration and return filing services to SMEs and, therefore, GST compliance comes as a logical business extension,†said Himanshu Jain.
The company is building a management team through new hires from top consulting firms and other large tech start-ups to prepare for its GST offering, and is working on bringing senior VAT official, RK Jain, as an advisor on its board.
It has also set up a 24x7 free helpline for SMEs to get in touch with experts and get their queries on GST registration and GST return filing addressed.
The company has served over 40,000 SMEs till date. Its current services include company registration, income tax return filing, tax deducted at sources filing, and trademark, among others.
The legal and compliance service market in India is estimated at Rs 40,000 crore and is growing at 25% year-on-year. In addition, GST compliance is expected to be a Rs 17,000-crore market.
Startups providing legal services have been attracting investments over the past few months. In December, MyAdvo, a platform that connects consumers with lawyers, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding led by Pradyumna Dalmia, co-founder of Calcutta Angels Network, through LetsVenture, a funding platform.
In July 2016, on-demand legal services provider HiGrit Services Pvt. Ltd had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from two Chandigarh-based investors.
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