Five to watch: Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo

Daniel van Binsbergen, 32
Company: Lexoo
Web: www.lexoo.co.uk

With five and a half years in the legal sector, Daniel van Binsbergen found that friends who owned businesses frequently asked him to recommend good lawyers. In a world where big firms “operate on fat margins” and high street firms may not have the necessary experience, he realised it was hard for entrepreneurs to find the right one.

In 2014, he started two-time Startups 100-featured Lexoo – an online platform that matches businesses and lawyers. After posting a request, users are provided with competitive, fixed-fee quotes from qualified lawyers – who are “closely screened for the right experience and expertise” – within 24 hours. The service is free for businesses to use, with Lexoo taking a fee from lawyers once a quote is accepted.

Having raised a $1.3m funding round in November last year to fuel growth, the platform has served 7,981 businesses to date – an increase of almost 7,000 on the previous year. With a number of larger companies starting to use the service and expansion into Europe on the horizon we’ll be keeping a close eye on this legal start-up over the next year.