A massive congratulations to the newest GD1 portfolio company Latch!

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Latch has impressive investor backing and we are proud to join the likes of US-based VC Craft Ventures, as well as local Phase One Ventures, and several founders at some of the world's biggest tech companies!

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Fiona Rotherham from NBR does a great job highlighting how and why Latch came to be. 

Co-founded last year by former lawyer and now chief executive Min-Kyu Jung and chief technical officer Jacob Duligall. They are launching into the US market at the end of this month after recently completing a $2.3m (US$1.4m) pre-seed capital round. 

In addition to discussing how Latch has developed technology for in-house legal teams so they can focus on legal rather than administrative work by automating routine contracting processes, the article covers topics including; the genesis, from lawyer to entrepreneur and direct to the US. 

Backed by US-based VC firm Craft Ventures (which has also backed the likes of Airbnb, Reddit, and Slack) and Pioneer incubator founder and Cue co-founder Daniel Gross. In conjunction with, local investors such as GD1 and Phase One Ventures the write-up goes on to discuss the form the money was raised and where the company is registered. 

Key quotes include: 

"He (Min-Kyu) ended up teaching himself how to code, leaving his corporate career, and building the startup."

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"Jung said he decided to bypass the New Zealand market and sell the digital contracting product in the US first. It will sell on an annual subscription-as-a-service model."

“We want to become one of the most important companies in the world. And I think to do that we need to grow really fast.”

Read the full NBR write up here.

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Publisher: NBR

Date: September 16th 2022

Writer: Fiona Rotherham (fiona@nbr.co.nz)

Original Article Link: https://www.nbr.co.nz/professional-services/new-kiwi-legal-tech-firm-latch-launching-into-the-us/

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