LawTech member
ScribeStar
Adam Shaw, Founder and Exec Chair speaks to Eagle Labs LawTech about ScribeStar.
Tell us about your business.
ScribeStar provides a secure digital ecosystem for capital markets transactions. It allows lawyers to produce the complex legal document-sets for these transactions much more efficiently - we save up to 50% of the time lawyers would normally spend on producing them. The system includes workflows that digitise, structure and automate collaboration, verification and regulatory approvals. And with a digital output that includes all information required for typesetting we can either provide data or go straight to printing without the need for financial printers.
Saving 50% of lawyer time means we can bring companies to market quicker, cheaper and digitally.
We've had over 70 transactions on the system so if you are a company looking to list or produce RNS’s then you should use us to be save you time and money.
If you are a lawyer you can use us to improve recovery rates and work life balance for your capital markets team, or to explore our other uses in M&A and private equity.
How we will support legal
Our core focus is on law firms as they are generally the 'pen-holders' in capital markets document production. The process to produce prospectuses is still highly manual, having changed little over the last 40 years. ScribeStar developed its technology to mimic what lawyers are already doing today, but by using structured data we take away a lot of the manual repetitive aspects, thus saving very meaningful amounts of time. In an interview with the London Stock Exchange, a partner from Taylor Wessing noted time savings of c50% using ScribeStar. We already have a growing number of law firms using our software but are looking to grow that further.
We see opportunities also for internal counsels at issuers and with banks, such as Barclays Legal, as we bring modernisation to the capital raising process, driving cheaper, quicker and digital access to capital markets.
Why we joined Eagle Labs
Barclays, as the leading UK bank in the capital markets sector brings a wealth of contacts that can both assist us in our development but also in terms of clients and new potential commercial opportunities. Eagle Labs itself provides an incredible network of both entrepreneurs, advisers, other start-ups and funders that can assist companies such as ours on their journey from start-up to fully-fledged, profitable business. Having participated in a number of the online conferences that Eagle Labs has run we can see that the knowledge within the network is invaluable. We also welcome providing our own expertise and learnings from our own journey to the network and helping other Eagle Labs businesses where we can.
When did you start your business?
2010.
What's been your biggest highlight?
The start of 2021 and the growing number of happy users since then. Seeing both SMEs and large cutting-edge companies (like the recent Oxford Nanopore) use us to float on public markets. Receiving emails from associates at law firms and corporate advisers telling us that the our platform is genuinely allowing them to enjoy their work more and finish it quicker (yes this really happens).
What's been your biggest challenge?
Being in the middle of a fundraise when the pandemic hit. Markets dropped 40%, meaning all revenue potential disappeared and all new investors walked away too. We pulled through though, and benefited from the WFH shift where everyone all of a sudden was open to trying out digital solutions. Several months later we redid our round and got oversubscribed by a healthy margin.
Advice for entrepreneurs starting out
After you get investors to buy into your vision and invest, make sure you communicate with them regularly. You might be a start-up, but try to do your corporate governance as if you're a listed company. It will pay dividends in the future.