India’s largest law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has announced setting up of India’ first incubator for startups in the legal sector. Named Prarambh, the incubator will incubate startups to launch technology-based solutions for the legal industry.
Prarambh will focus on areas including access to justice, dispute resolution, transaction efficiencies, law firm operations, legal research, compliance, contract management, managing legal talent, and others, the law firm said in a statement.
“We have been first to adopt a number of new technologies in the legal space, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. We are now the first to incubate technology start-ups to support our clients, our lawyers and enhance the services,” said Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
Prarambh joins the list of growing number of industry-specific incubators or accelerators set up by large domestic and foreign business in India, for example Amity Innovation Incubator (Amity University), Yes Fintech (Yes Bank), BW Accelerate (Business World), Cisco LaunchPad (Cisco), SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIDBI) etc.
The incubator, currently based in the Delhi office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, will be expanded to other cities as well ahead.
Shroff claimed that the existing legal technology being used in other jurisdictions doesn’t suit the India legal market well. Hence, there is ‘need gap’ and ‘adjustment gap’, said Shroff, that the law firm is aiming to bridge.
He further highlighted the need to foster the “deep pool of undiscovered and under-supported legal and technology skills” to fill the gap.
Startups would be able to apply for the incubation between April 8 – 30 this year. The shortlisted startups will be announced on May 31 followed by the interview and pitching session in June. The names for selected startups will be declared in the first week of July and in the following 4-6 weeks the startups will move in to the law firm’s office.
The incubator will pick 3-4 startups initially “to bring their ideas to fruition and guide them to commercial success,” the law firm said.
Prarambh will be headed by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ head of AI and innovation Komal Gupta.
“With the firm’s lineage, brand, infrastructure, subject matter expertise across domains, empathy, and expert mentorship, Prarambh is the ideal incubation platform,” said Gupta.