Osborne Clarke advises Thirdfort on £1.5M fund raising to ramp up product development

International legal practice Osborne Clarke has advised digital onboarding platform, Thirdfort, on its latest £1.5m fund raising. Leading digital entrepreneur Alex Chesterman is among the high profile names to have reinvested. The funding will support expansion in the legal and property sectors for the digital ID and anti-money-laundering start-up.

Thirdfort the Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Know Your Client (KYC) specialist looks to ramp up product development and support its continued expansion in the legal and property markets. The ‘growth’ funding round was raised solely from existing investors, with the funds doubled via a convertible loan from the Government, as part of its Future Fund programme.

This latest round marks the third investment from Alex Chesterman OBE (founder of Cazoo, Zoopla and LoveFilm), regarded as one of Britain’s most successful serial digital entrepreneurs, as well as further backing from the likes of law firm Mishcon de Reya, Chris Marks (former CEO of Natwest Markets) and David Rutter (founder of R3), among others. It brings the company’s total funds raised to £4.2 million and will support product development and innovation, particularly in light of HM Land Registry’s recently introduced Digital ID Standard which, alongside other Government initiatives, is expected to drive the use of digital ID within conveyancing.

FCA regulated Thirdfort is a web and mobile app that combines Open Banking, document scanning and facial recognition technology, to streamline identity and source of funds checks carried out during legal and property transactions. Thirdfort lets lawyers and property professionals onboard their clients quickly, securely and entirely remotely.

Associate Director James Taylor advised Thirdfort.

This deal is another example of Osborne Clarke's Venture Capital work advising disruptive, fast-growing start-ups in the tech sector. Osborne Clarke's market-leading international venture capital practice is widely recognized as a leading European law firm for companies operating in the technology, media and telecoms sector. The Venture Capital team is ranked tier one by The Legal 500 and has experts across London, the Thames Valley and Bristol. It has an outstanding track record advising start-ups, global market leaders, angel investors and institutional VC/growth capital investors on funding rounds, follow-on rounds, venture debt facilities, IPOs, trade sales and buy & build projects.