Today Orbital Witness, a LegalTech startup profiling legal risk in property transactions on-demand, announced a funding round of £1.2 million bringing together PropTech heavyweights JLL Spark (advised by Concrete VC) and LiFE Residential investment arm, LiFE Ventures, alongside Europe’s leading seed fund, Seedcamp. The round includes grant funding for research and product development through Innovate UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aimed at transforming legal services. 

Whether a first-time homebuyer, or managing, developing or financing a portfolio of properties or land assets, getting a clean bill of health on title and search results is crucial to each and every new transaction or project. Ed Boulle, Co-Founder and CEO describes the need to bring transparency and immediacy to property legal assessments:

“Real estate is the most valuable asset class there is. Everyone involved in a real estate deal should therefore have visibility of any red flag legal issues with the property ahead of time." Said Ed Boulle, Co-founder and CEO of Orbital Witness

The trouble is, if you’re weighing up multiple properties or sites, it just isn’t possible or practical to go into the detail of each one without incurring significant expense and delay”. 

Orbital Witness is already helping property lawyers to drastically reduce the time it takes to build a detailed understanding of the properties or sites they are working on, profile relevant transactional risks, and get on with the job of providing useful, clear advice to their clients. The company, which ran its first pilot less than one year ago, already has an impressive array of early adopters, working with real estate teams in a number of leading law firms including Mishcon de Reya, Clifford Chance, Reed Smith and Macfarlanes.

Jonathan Werth, Managing Director of LiFE Ventures, an investment arm of London-based estate agents LiFE Residential comments:

“We have tracked Orbital Witness closely for many months and really struggled to find a reason NOT to invest." 

"We understood the product from the beginning and the value it brings to all parties involved in the property transaction process. We wanted to be in a position to proudly assist Ed & Will with the growth of their product. We are really excited to be involved and look forward to watching their progress as they take away some of the stress homebuyers experience when making one of the most important decisions in life.”

To learn more about Orbital Witness’ platform for identifying risks in property transactions visit: https://www.orbitalwitness.com/about/