Delhi NCR-based LegalPay announced that it has launched a $2 million Justice and Inclusion Fund to invest in legaltech companies and startups working towards financial inclusion.
The fund's anchor lead is Ambarish Gupta, founder of Basis Vectors and ex-founder of Knowlarity. An investment committee has been constituted which comprises of entrepreneur-turned-investor and philanthropist Ashwini Kakkar to enable an impartial funding mechanism. The committee also comprises Kundan Shahi, founder and chief executive officer of LegalPay, Kashish Grover, chief operational officer of LegalPay, and Ojasvi Babbar, chief executive officer of Amity Incubation Centre.
On the launch of the fund, Shahi said, "Through this fund, LegalPay will invest Rs 25-50 lakh each in over 30 startups in the next two years. The fund aims to fund businesses that aim to solve legal and socially inclusive problems and aid them with our network and technological capabilities that we have developed over the last few years."
Founded in 2020, LegalPay is a tech-focused third-party litigation funder and interim financier in insolvency. It provides funds to corporate debtors who need interim finance that ranges from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 crore. It specializes in asset-backed fixed-income and legal financing products with lucrative internal rate of return (IRR) ranging from 18% to 30%.
In May 2021, LegalPay secured an undisclosed sum in a seed funding round led by 9Unicorns - the venture fund set up by incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts. The funding round was also participated by early-stage investment platform LetsVenture along with angel investor Ambarish Gupta.
In June 2022, LegalPay made its first successful exit from its interim finance investment to debt-laden Yashomati Hospitals which was admitted for insolvency in March 2021. The resolution plan submitted by Kauvery Medical Care was approved by the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on 30 May 2022.
The legaltech space has seen substantial growth in the past few years with Vakilsearch, an online platform for legal, tax, and compliance services operated also raising $10 million (Rs. 75 crore) from Incorp India last year.