SeedLegals launches EMI Scheme service for tech founders

SeedLegals, a UKTN Elevator Pitch winner, has launched its own EMI Scheme in a bid to help founders set up and run share options schemes for their employees.

It comes after the company, based in London, launched its ‘Instant Investments’ service, which seeks to make it easier for founders to raise funding.

Launched in March 2017, SeedLegals is a cloud-based platform which simplifies and cuts the cost of the startup fundraising process.

Speaking to UKTN, Anthony Rose, the co-founder, said: “Laurent Laffy and I started SeedLegals with a goal of transforming the way founders can build and scale their businesses. We started with the legals. Paying lawyers a fortune to spend weeks creating a Shareholders Agreement and Articles made no sense, it was time for technology to change that. So, we built a platform to empower founders and cut out the lawyers, to dramatically reduce the time and cost of doing a funding round.

“Then we used technology to do things that just weren’t feasible before, introducing products to replace 12-18 month funding cycles with the ability to raise investment in minutes before or after a funding round. And then we realised it’s not just lawyers, it’s accounting that can do with some tech disruption. Accountants used to charge crazy money to create an EMI Options Scheme, we figured it was time to change that. Our goal is to be the operating system of your company, this is the next step in that journey. Next year we’ll automate share transfers, bringing liquidity to the startup world, and more.”

The news comes after data from more than 200 funding rounds closed on SeedLegals showed that less than half – 47% – of high-growth UK companies offered stock options to their employees in 2017.

SeedLegal’s new feature will enable users to manage their option pool as part of their cap table and allocate options to specific employees with custom vesting schedules. As a result, employees will be able to log in and check the details of their options.

SeedLegals raised £1m from Angel investors, two law firms and an early-stage venture fund in July 2017.