Edinburgh-based tech firm Miso Legal downloads major funding package

Edinburgh-based Miso Legal, which harnesses tech to help litigators, has raised six-figure seed funding from an international group of angel investors.

Miso Legal says the capital raise will enable it to invest in enhancing and marketing the case-analysis platform created to help users better manage their document-heavy, complex caseloads.

Thorntons, which says it is one of Scotland's largest full-service legal firms, saw its specialist high-growth team assist in structuring and completing the capital raise, while it has also itself adopted Miso Legal across its litigation teams.

The latter business says it was designed by litigators with practical, real-life experience, and aims to transform the litigation process for solicitors and advocates by tracking, organising and cross-referencing all information related to cases in a way allowing teams to easily extract key data, share documents and collaborate.

The latest funding round will support further development of the app, which is set to expand beyond litigators to include all aspects of the dispute process.

Miso Legal chief executive Philip Petersen said: “Miso Legal has been designed by litigators with years of experience – we understand the pressures that lawyers and everyone involved in the litigation process face.”

Also commenting was its founder Pete Milligan, who cheered the positive impact its offering has had at Thorntons, and the support the latter has provided for Miso’s two funding rounds.

'It’s great to see another dynamic, Scottish-based tech business achieve success,' says Alistair Lang, partner and head of high growth at Thorntons. Picture: GSR Photographic.

Alistair Lang, partner and head of high growth at Thorntons, said: “Digitisation is having a profound effect on the legal industry, allowing law firms to work more efficiently and effectively by reducing the amount of time spent on paperwork and largely manual, administrative tasks.

“Miso Legal is a brilliant product, and its developers have exciting plans to grow and expand the platform. It’s great to see another dynamic, Scottish-based tech business achieve success.”

Among those who have used the tech at Thorntons is Michaela Dougan, associate in its personal injury team, who used Miso in a complicated, long-running clinical negligence case litigated in the Court of Session.

Benefits she highlights include being easily able to share large amounts of documentation, including medical records, with counsel. She added: “The time-saving element is absolutely key. As the courts and firms move towards being paperless or at least paper reduced, it is a platform which will streamline processes for litigation practitioners on a daily basis.”