Poor team visibility and being blitzed by reporting paperwork every month for a decade was a strong incentive for LawVu founder Tim Boyne to seek a better way for corporate lawyers to keep track of their work. That better way is LawVu, a rapidly expanding business software platform helping make life easier and more efficient for hundreds of corporate law teams around the globe.
The low-profile Tauranga based business is the offspring of Tim’s frustration having spent a decade in the legal world, combined with the SaaS (software as a service) skills of Sam Kidd who had spent years in Ireland working in the online project management space. The two founded the company in 2015 and have witnessed a rapid expansion with LawVu offices now in Ireland, Australia, and United States.
LawVu is becoming the “go to” software platform for increasing numbers of in-house legal teams around the world when it comes to putting in a system to help with the day to day running of the legal team and it’s interactions with the business and the law firms they engage with. “What we found was the in-house legal sector has been largely unchanged for the past 20 years. It has missed out on many of the digital productivity tools other sectors have benefitted from,” says Tim.
Australia proved to be the company’s big break, thanks to a contract with communications giant Telstra using the software in what is one of the largest corporate legal teams in the Southern Hemisphere.
LawVu’s funding has also been homegrown, with local investor Craig Wearne providing initial financing. More recently LawVu secured $2.5 million of additional funding through Australian venture capital firm AirTree Ventures as well as US based Shasta Ventures, NZ based NZGCP and Icehouse Ventures. This takes the total raised to date NZD$6.8m. Big local clients include Fonterra, Zespri, PWC and LIC. The pandemic resulted in the company tripling its revenue in 2020, and headcount to 70 and an expansion of its Tauranga base.
Tim Boyne is highly optimistic about LawVu’s future, with prospects of another capital fund raise later in 2021, and continuing growing the team out in-person and remotely. “We intend to stay right here in Tauranga, and would love to see a hub of tech firms develop here over time,” says Tim.
07 808 5600
www.lawvu.co.nz
