Investment in legal startups is down this year after peaking at $150 million last year, according to Christine Magee, an analyst for CrunchBase, in a recent post on the TechCrunch blog. “Aside from large rounds for Clio practice management software, manufactured by Themis Solutions, and legal marketplace Avvo, investors appear to be losing interest in legal tech,” she said.
She credits the downturn to investors wanting to see better results, faster. “The sales cycle for the legal industry is so long—12 months or more—and investors expect their companies to have more traction in the first 12 to 18 months than we can show,” Jules Miller, of legal marketplace Hire an Esquire, told Magee.
