Orbital Witness announced today that has raised €8.6 million in a Series A round led by PropTech venture firm Parker89 and joined by LocalGlobe, Outward VC, Seedcamp, Portfolio Ventures, and Realty Corporation.
With this new investment, they will be expanding into the residential conveyancing market to help law firms and conveyancers, many of whom are still recovering from the effects of the turbulence of the last few years, tackle the challenges associated with delivering north of 1.4 million property transactions a year.
Orbital Witness is building the technology that will automate and replace the legacy paperwork-heavy ‘diligence’ process that is the source of endless hold-ups, unplanned costs, uncertainty and stress on property transactions.
The platform has already made waves in the commercial real estate market, with over 2,500 lawyers and property professionals at clients including Mischon de Reya, Clifford Chance, Slaughter & May, Tesla and M&S saving more than 74 million minutes across 76,000 transactions.
“This funding round comes off the back of a year in which our company’s revenues doubled, and brings our total funding to €13.2 million to date. We’ll use the investment to expand our 45-strong team, enhance our product offerings, and build key partnerships across the property market”, says Will Pearce, co-founder and CEO of Orbital Witness. “As part of this funding round, we are particularly delighted to welcome Parker89 who represents First American Financial, one of the largest insurers in the business. We will continue to pioneer our unique approach to legal-grade automation backed by insurance.”, adds Pearce.
Orbital Witness has decided to start applying its technology to assist conveyancing lawyers on leasehold property transactions. Leasehold accounts for approximately 25% of property in the UK and presents far more challenges for conveyancing firms to handle at scale.
“At Parker89, we find and invest in the teams and technologies that will usher in the future business models and working practices of a real estate transaction. Orbital Witness’ vision of automated diligence – combining risk-spotting AI with insurance to enhance efficiency in real estate transactions – fits perfectly into our investment strategy and aligns with the expertise and assets we can offer. We are excited to partner with Will, Ed, and the Orbital Witness team.” says Paul Hurst, Managing Director at Parker89.
Orbital Witness replaces the need for lawyers to trawl through and check documents provided on a purchase or remortgage with an AI system which can automatically provide answers to the majority of standard conveyancing checks required on any leasehold property transaction, including those required by lenders, as soon as they open a file. The AI system has been carefully and meticulously trained by property lawyers and tested on thousands of leasehold properties.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2023/05/london-based-orbital-witness-raises-e8-6-million-in-series-a-funding-to-automate-property-paperwork-heavy-dilligence/