Contxto – Television series often depict lawyers as witty and slick. In reality, they’re often overworked in bureaucratic and costly cases where success is never certain. With over 78 million pending lawsuits in Brazil, the legaltech Mediação Online (MOL) recently raised R$14 million (around US$3.3 million) to streamline online conflict resolution.
Leading this investment round were Redpoint eventures and Canary. Furnished with new funds, MOL intends to pursue expansion plans throughout its native market.
“MOL operates throughout Brazil, but we want to increase its presence in other states of the country,” said CEO and co-founder, Melissa Gava.
Over the next year, she hopes to double the number of deals made, in addition to trippling MOL’s staff and working more closely with SMEs. Since its 2015 founding, the startup has reportedly handled over 35,000 cases for large companies such as Itaú and Mercado Livre.
Mediation startup
Gava founded Mediação Online in 2015 alongside fellow co-founder, Camilla Lopes. At the time, the entrepreneurs launched MOL following legislative changes in Brazil when private mediation became available.
With MOL’s solution, an impartial, third party on behalf of the legaltech acts as a mediator between two conflicting parties. When they reach a consensus, the parties sign a legally valid agreement. From there, the system registers the settlement with the Court of Justice in São Paulo.
Full of potential, MOL previously participated in the prestigious 500 Startups accelerator program in August 2017. In light of this recent investment, Flavio Pripas a Corporate Venture Officer at Redpoint eventures said, “Brazil is not alone when it comes to a deficiency in judging cases.”
From my perspective, this means that legal inefficiencies exist throughout Latin America. Therefore, this sort of solution could benefit many of us. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing which legaltech Repoint eventures invests in next. In the meantime, I’ll keep watching my television shows.
-ML
