Contend, a legal tech startup leveraging genAI to provide affordable online legal support to consumers, has gained pre-Seed funding, including from Supernode Global and the LegalTech Fund. The cash is a vote of confidence in their B2C / A2J legal services model. (See the AL TV video below on what it can do.)
As Contend explained, it’s there to ‘help individuals navigate some of life’s hardest legal challenges in housing, employment, and family law – areas where access to affordable legal help is often limited’.
And as readers know, access to justice is a constant issue, or rather access to affordable legal advice and support that is above and beyond no-win, no-fee claims, or that is outside of what legal aid covers, is an issue.
The challenge has always been: how does a piece of software provide accurate, useful, and understandable legal help when there is no lawyer-in-the-loop, at least not immediately? By tapping genAI and working with legal experts Contend has made considerable progress.
You can try out some Q&A with it here. As you will see, this approach has come a very long way since early attempts back in 2016 to 2018 by several pioneers in this space.
Since launching, Contend has ‘helped over 100,000 people find legal guidance, reducing costs and improving outcomes for those who need it most’.
It’s based on a conversational platform (see above) and ‘enables users to obtain accurate legal information and generate documents in minutes at a fraction of the cost of traditional services’.
This funding will accelerate product development, expand legal coverage, and further enhance Contend’s AI capabilities to provide more accurate, accessible, and personalized legal support.
Co-founder Michael Stych told Artificial Lawyer: ‘Contend is only for the UK (specifically England & Wales), and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. The tech team will be based in Toronto, but working with UK legal experts where appropriate.’
And before lawyers start to shout: ‘Unauthorized practise of law!’ what Contend is doing is entirely fine based on local liberalised rules in England & Wales, although that may not be the case in the US.
In terms of the business model – which has often been a complex area for B2C /A2J legal tech companies to navigate as many potential customers don’t have a lot of money to spend – Stych said: ‘We’re experimenting with different price points and payment options. In summary, it’s still a transactional paywalled model, focused on monetizing with consumers.’ But, it does indeed seem to be affordable.
See the AL TV video of Contend, recorded last year. Press Play to watch inside the page.
Stych continued: ‘Hundreds of millions of people face legal issues around the world every year, but can’t afford a lawyer or don’t know where to start. AI has the power to change that.
‘With the support of Supernode Global, The LegalTech Fund, and our other investors, we’re scaling our efforts to make legal assistance faster, easier, and more accessible than ever before.’
Gina King, Partner, Supernode Global, said: ‘Legal services have remained largely inaccessible and unaffordable for too many, creating a significant gap in consumer access to justice.
‘Contend’s AI-driven approach isn’t just making legal services more affordable – it’s reimagining the entire consumer experience, providing guidance during life’s most pressing situations. We believe this technology has the potential to democratize legal assistance at a scale previously unimaginable.’
And Zach Posner, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, the LegalTech Fund, added: ‘We are excited to support their mission and believe they have the potential to transform the consumer legal landscape.’
More broadly, Contend noted that globally the B2C legal sector is valued at over $172 billion – and that may not include all of the unmet demand out there. At present it’s fair to say that legal tech companies providing online legal advice to consumers represent a tiny fraction of that overall figure. So, huge potential.
GenAI may be the technological step needed to overcome past barriers, primarily because of its ability to handle complex language understanding. Before, machine learning systems just could not cope with the varied requests for help from the general public using a chatbot format. Now, as Contend has shown, with genAI they can.
Moreover, as LLMs – especially ones with advanced reasoning models – become more sophisticated, then more will be able to be done for consumers online who may often have queries that eventually boil down to several key types of issue, e.g. employment, housing, or divorce.
Naturally, it’s early days, but a system that can provide help and produce documents at an affordable rate could make a big difference. Stych also acknowledges that at some point a person will likely need to engage with a real lawyer in many cases, but at least Contend can help get them started and do a lot of the initial work that’s needed on a matter.
Congrats to Contend and hat-tip to Supernode and TLTF for backing them.
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( Main pic Stych and co-founder William Boan. )
