Meet LegalFundi
LegalFundi is a Law and Regulation Technology company that provides AI-driven technology solutions that accelerate access to legal regulation, management, and on-going compliance. The SaaS-solution is designed to be flexible, affordable, accessible and of a standard on par with a traditional lawyer.
MEET THE TEAM
LegalFundi is made up of 3 dedicated development team members and a group of expert advisors to provide insights and oversight. LegalFundi’s development team combines decades of legal experience, tech development, and business entrepreneurship.
Colleen Chennells is the CEO, ethical trade specialist, paralegal specialist, and lawyer. Colleen is responsible for authoring the Paralegal Manual of South Africa, and it is this knowledge that we build our foundation upon.
Jack Chennells is the COO, social-impact entrepreneur, commercial law specialist, and development ops technologist. Jack has a masters in commercial law and is in the process of becoming a full stack developer and social entrepreneur.
Reece Chetty is the CTO, a software development company owner, and entrepreneur. Reece is our mastermind on all things AI and data.
We are an experienced and committed team with a long-term vision and commitment to our community within Africa and specifically South Africa.
THE PROBLEM BEING SOLVED
Statistics indicate that 22% of SMEs believe that compliance and formal legal management are unattainable and a further 31% stated that they do not understand what needs to be done to achieve regulatory compliance, amongst other problems plaguing SMEs within South Africa. LegalFundi wants to see businesses growing and transitioning into the formal economy and we intend to be pioneers in achieving this. We believe that there are three fundamental prohibitors of legal access for business and these include: high-cost models, location of services, and the accessibility or understanding of information.
THE IMPORTANCE OF WHY THE PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE SOLVED
The South African Constitution states in section 9, subsection 1 that ”everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law”. We realised that this ideal is not being achieved due to South Africans not having access to their rights when encountering legal problems.
South Africa is a country that faces extreme inequality. The wealthy are well-educated and have access to legal counsel and the poor do not as they are marginalised. Corruption in developing countries is often a problem in the police force, while vulnerable people are usually taken advantage of as their rights are being violated without their knowledge. This is a problem for the South African legal system that needs to be solved in order to uphold the constitution and protect South Africans.
OPPORTUNITIES COVID-19 PROVIDED
COVID-19 has enabled the team the personal ability to consolidate their way of thinking to align their business goals with their personal perspectives on how we intend to bring change. LegalFundi is the child of this process and was the catalyst to decisions being made to pursue it with greater fervor.
The society and business-wide transition caused by COVID-19 has made the environment surrounding LegalFundi’s birth one which is far more accessible and intentional. Not only did the shift in business function mandate and allow an ongoing movement towards a more digital age of business operations, but within the ambit of South Africa (as our reference point) there has been a far greater perception that businesses need to fulfill a far greater function within ensuring that services are delivered to those who previously did not have and comes with a greater onus on how we conduct business, and to what end it exists.
ASPIRATIONS FOR INCUBATION PERIOD AT FSAT LABS
During our incubation period, we would like to achieve the following:
Refine our business model down and iterate into more pertinent tech stacks
Achieve a product-market fit with 10 monthly subscriptions
Secure two market-distribution partners
Secure seed funding
ARE YOU AN INVESTOR?
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