由女性领导的Lawtech初创公司落后于冒险。
Legal technology, the use of digital technology in the legal sector, has been in the spotlight since Covid-19 forced us all to work from home for many months. Yet, even as the past year has seen a step change in the采用法律技术和创新，由女性领导的Lawtech初创公司落后于资金。
这是我们关于法律服务技术和创新的核心发现之一，这是牛津大学为律师监管机构（SRA）的一项广泛研究而产生的。我们的研究基于对近900家SRA调节公司的在线调查，与各种利益相关者进行的50次访谈以及数据库（燃烧玻璃，Crunchbase和Legal Technology Hub）的分析。
我们的团队由我领导，Mari Sako, Professor of Management Studies在牛津大学的Saïd商学院，研究了英国新兴Lawtech行业的动态。我们采用了一个生态系统的观点，其中包括涉及创业者，客户，天使和风险投资投资者，政府和大学的资金和人才的流量。
我们的主要发现表明，由于风险投资的偏见，妇女创始人在新兴的Lawtech行业中的人数不足，而且由于妇女创始人自己的决定专注于专注于Lawtech地区的决定，而Lawtech地区的可扩展性较低，因此对风险投资不太适合。
更详细地发现：
1.风险投资是Lawtech初创公司的主要资金来源。但是，在很早的阶段，天使的资金似乎也很重要。尽管如此，在美国，向英国Lawtech行业提供资金是美国的一小部分。在美国，英国Lawtech初创公司筹集的总资金约为8.5亿美元。这种对比部分是由于经济体相对大小的差异，也是由于美国硅谷的资金水平很高。
2.英国Lawtech初创公司致力于为公司提供服务，这是吸引风险资本的机会。Lawtech初创公司专注于大型公司，我们发现英国总资金的97％用于所谓的“ Biglaw”。相比之下，我们发现，只有3.2％的资金流入了初创企业，主要客户群是个人消费者和小型企业，这是我们称为“ Peoplelaw”的市场领域。
3. PeopleLaw startups are working in areas like will writing, probate, family law and conveyancing while BigLaw startups provide software tools for M&A due diligence and contract analytics. Thus, the business models are quite different. As a consequence, our research found that PeopleLaw startups are addressing market areas where it is difficult to scale, because the core business is one-off purchases by consumers. This is a turn off for venture capital investors who look for businesses with scale up potential. Startup founders can attract investment only if you can prove you have the ambition to scale up. Our findings suggest this business model gap must be addressed.
4.除上述内容外，我们的发现表明，Lawtech创业生态系统中的性别平衡偏向。我们的数据库显示，只有约15％至16％的英国Lawtech Ventures拥有至少一名女性创始人。此外，女性创始人还主要聚集在人民中，这也减少了他们获得风险投资的机会。尽管有63％的Lawtech初创公司专注于Peoplelaw，至少有一位女性创始人，相比之下，有8％的Lawtech初创公司专注于BigLaw拥有至少一位女性创始人。因此，女性创始人聚集在Peoplelaw市场领域中，那里已经很难吸引资金，因为该商业模式被认为是不可扩展的。因此，Lawtech初创公司的女性受到筹集资金困难的双重打击。
5.我们的研究结果使我们建议的方法omen may be better represented in lawtech. One of the ways one may attempt to increase diversity along gender lines in the lawtech ecosystem would be to attract more female founders with a BigLaw experience in law firms or as in-house counsel. PeopleLaw startup founders who are seeking ways of scaling up faster could look to move to a subscription model, by bundling one-off purchases with selling other services. These women founders could also make attempts to straddle lawtech and fintech (or other sectors), thus seeking to exploit market opportunities behind the confines of the legal industry.
Above all, our findings suggest the lack of diversity and inclusion in the emerging lawtech startup industry in the UK requires careful thought and investment in resources.
