Law firm Addleshaw Goddard announces first cohort of fintechs for accelerator program

London-based corporate law firm Addleshaw Goddard (AG) announced the first cohort of fintech startups that are selected for the AG Elevate program that will provide tailored legal advice along with a wide range of training, mentoring and insights from AG lawyers.

Seven fintechs have been selected and paired with an AG mentor who will aid them in identifying and responding to their unique legal and commercial challenges. These seven startups will benefit from up to 40 hours of free legal advice for the year, as well as access to briefings, seminars and regulatory developments and networking opportunities.

AG Elevate program was launched last year November with an initial investment of £500,000.  It is a fast-track 2-month program that is designed to guide emerging and ambitious fintech projects in their development. It will support 'early-stage' start-ups with no more than £1million of investment and fintech firms with funding of more than £1million, the release stated.

“We are thrilled to be able to work with this group of exceptional FinTechs, each with a distinctive business and a brilliant opportunity to grow their market share. The industry needs pioneers to disrupt, challenge and push the boundaries through clever thinking and technological advances. That’s why programs like AG Elevate are so important and our job over the next year is to draw on our collective experience and insight to guide them through the next important stages of their growth,” Fiona Ghosh, Head of Addleshaw Goddard's FinTech Group said.

The seven successful fintech businesses include Comply Advantage, a provider of AML data and compliance technology solutions; Delio, a white label platform solution for private assets; Mobillity, intelligent money manager; Money Fellows; Pace Invoice; Penta, a bank for small businesses; and Valoot.

The law firm has partnered with Fintech Connect, a global platform for fintech industry, and PayExpo, the UK’s largest payments event, and teamed up with a number of fintech accelerator programs in order to identify promising fintech firms to join the program.

The jury committee has selected the successful fintech based on various criteria’s including type of business and the stage they are in their evolution, legal needs, clarity of ambition and their business plan, cultural fit with AG, among others. The program saw over 30 businesses, including fintechs from across Europe and Asia.

“We are very grateful to all those businesses who applied to join AG Elevate. The benchmark was very high resulting in a very competitive process,” Ghosh added.