Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Announces Successful Conclusion of Prarambh Cohort 2

Launched in October 2020, Prarambh Cohort 2 was designed as a 16-week virtual incubation programme for LegalTech startups in the ‘development and/or ready to scale’ stage. Conduct, Presolv360, and PropertyChek were selected from 24 start-up applicants to Prarambh Cohort 2 after a comprehensive multi-stage evaluation and assessment process. These startups were selected to address one or more areas of interest, namely access to justice, increasing transactional efficiencies, improving law firm operations, improving litigation competencies, accessing government programmes and reforms and the remote workforce.

Talking about Prarambh Cohort 2’s success, Mr. Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said, “The successful conclusion of Prarambh Cohort 2 echoes our commitment to innovate and excel with technology. India’s legal industry needs dynamic LegalTech solutions, now more than ever, as businesses are looking to improve and sustain work efficiency in virtual environments. With Prarambh, we aim to supplement this need and pave the way for growth of LegalTech solutions in India.”

After careful assessment by CAM’s innovation team, mentors, and experts, various customized and structured programmes were designed and rigorously implemented. The focus was to provide deep professional insights to the start-ups and their founders that would enhance their product capabilities in line with industry and client requirements, help develop diverse skills required to rapidly scale up, and enable them to achieve their broader goals at a faster pace.

Mr. Rishabh Shroff, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said, “Prarambh’s Cohort 2 is a natural evolution and expansion from the experiences of the first cohort, and more importantly from the impact of COVID on India’s legal industry. With our clients increasingly requiring their advisors to be at the forefront of innovation and deliver cost-effective robust solutions backed by technology, we feel these cohort members strongly help us meet these goals. It also fits into our broader Firm strategy of broadening our horizons towards digitally native clients, start-ups, and founders. Our second cohort is a win-win on all fronts.”

Prarambh Cohort 2 was designed as a comprehensive virtual programme, which included various sessions on business essentials including governance, risk & compliance, product improvement, pitching & funding, marketing & business development, beta testing, and growth strategies. Each start-up was assigned different mentors according to the solutions being developed. This mentor-mentee relationship allowed for transformative enhancements to products and services, thereby accelerating growth of these game-changing LegalTech products.

Talking about Prarambh Cohort 2, Ms.Komal Gupta, – Chief Innovation Officer, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said, “The second cohort has been an enriching experience not only for the three start-ups but also for us. The cohort was focused on ready-to-scale start-ups, which helped us clearly define goals for each of them and create a tailor-made program where the start-ups and their Founders could grow professionally as well as in person.”

“Having clearly defined metrics for each start-up at the onset of the programme allowed us to track their progress and hand-hold them as and when required. This time we focused on a theme eachmonth – It’s All About You, LegalTech Landscape Across the Globe, Pitching and Funding, and Understanding the Clients’ Perspective. We had guest mentors from across the globe to mentor the start-ups which helped in expanding our vision. I am sure these start-ups will have a powerful and positive impact on the LegalTech landscape in India. Prarambh has had a significant impact on the domestic legal market encouraging entrepreneurs to develop scalable solutions for the legal industry and also warming up clients and investors to LegalTech. Prarambh has made LegalTech a category in incubator and accelerator applications – a category that never existed [in India before],”

Prarambh’s first cohort was launched on October 9, 2019, with three start-ups, namely JRTC Intern, Leegality, and LegalMind completing their incubation and development journey, and finding excellent acceptance among clients and investors.

Prarambh Cohort 2 experience: The Founders’ perspectives

·         Pallavi Pareek, Founder, Conduct, said, “The Prarambh experience is comprehensive, legally nuanced, and very dedicated to a specific product solution. Customiszd for entities at different stages, this programme provides insights to all aspects of a business.”

·         Namita Shah and Bhaven Shah, Founders, Presolv360, said, “The ‘Prarambh experience‘ has been game changing for us at Presolv360. It has helped us improve our offerings, refine our processes and capitalize on opportunities in the LegalTech ecosystem. It is akin to doing an ‘MBA in LegalTech‘. All the learnings will definitely translate into more growth and more impact for Presolv360!“

·         Amarjot Sandhu and Uday Kiran Chakka, Founders, PropertyChek said, “The Prarambh experience has been a shot in the arm for us and PropertyChek is much more equipped to accomplish its mission of bringing trust and transparency in the Real Estate sector. The biggest advantage is that the quality and intellectual level of every speaker in every session has been world class. The work put in by the innovation team to provide the cohort with the necessary knowledge, mentorship, resources and practical experience would help it succeed.”

About Cohort 2’s startups

·         Conduct is a culture-compliant tech solution focused on bringing data at the forefront of diversity & inclusion building and management at the workplaces.

·         Presolv360 is an independent institution that facilitates and administers dispute resolution services via its cloud-based end-to-end online dispute resolution (‘ODR‘) platform and specializes in small to mid-value commercial dispute resolution by making it data-driven and inclusive.

·         PropertyChek is Indias first Property Legal Process Management (PLPM) SaaS platform that helps banks and financial companies conduct title due diligence and registrations before issuing loan mortgages for real estate properties.

About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) is India’s leading law firm with a global reputation of being trusted advisers to its clients. The Firm advises a large and diverse set of clients, including domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, financial institutions, private equity and venture capital funds, start-ups, government and regulatory bodies. The Firm generalists, specialists and senior ex-regulators expertly guide clients across a spectrum of transactions, sectors and regulations. With over 850 lawyers and 150 Partners, the Firm is the largest full-service law firm in India and offices in key business centres at Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, GIFT City and also in Singapore. Further details can be found at www.cyrilshroff.com and www.linkedin.com/company/cyril-amarchand-mangaldas/mycompany.

In 2021, the Firm received “Law Firm of the Year” award at the IFLR 1000 India Awards, “India Deal Firm of the Year” at the ALB India Awards and “Most Responsive Domestic Law Firm” at the In-House Community Firm of the Year Awards.