72. Apperio

Founder: Nicholas d’Adhemar
Founded: February 2013 (Launched August 2014)
Website: www.apperio.com

Legal fees can be a complex and murky business. Having experienced them as both a lawyer and a client, Nicholas d’Adhemar knew how they could cause problems for both parties – with clients unable to budget properly and facing surprise bills, and firms subjected to low recovery rates and an average cash collection period of more than 150 days.

On the back of this experience, he decided to build a platform that would help everyone make better decisions. His solution was Apperio, an analytics dashboard that gives both law firms and businesses real-time transparency on legal fees and identifies areas for improved efficiency. Working on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, businesses pay a monthly fee depending on the volume of fees monitored and law firms pay per user per month.

Since launch in August 2014, Apperio has secured 15 corporate clients, including Octopus Investments, Simply Business and Brandwatch, and formed partnerships with 17 major law firms such as Dentons, Olswang and DAC Beachcroft. It also claims to have monitored an impressive £20m in legal fees.

Following on from some early angel investment, the fast-growth company closed a £1.7m seed funding round in March 2016, and now plans to ramp up customer acquisition and bolster its team in the coming months, as well as investing in refining its core product. Injecting some transparency back into a notoriously opaque market and with some impressive partnerships already lined up, this is certainly one to watch.