LegalZoom.com Announces Strategic Investment by Polaris Venture Partners
3/23/07 – Los Angeles-based LegalZoom.com, an online legal document preparation service, has announced that it has secured financing from Polaris Venture Partners, a national venture capital firm with over $3 billion under management.
The company is not releasing the funding amount, but chairman and co-founder Brian Liu says that the it will be used for expansion and “general corporate purposes.”
LegalZoom charges a flat fee for its legal services, which range from wills, living wills and small claims, to business services like incorporation, LLC formation and copyrights.
Liu says that the company’s primary value proposition is reduced cost. “We charge a flat fee for each of our services, which are a fraction of what an attorney would charge,” said Liu. “For example, a last will and testament is $69, and forming an LLC is $139 plus filing fees.”
Co-founded by famed attorney Robert Shapiro in 2001, LegalZoom says that more than 400,000 people have used the service to write wills, incorporate a business, file a trademark and take care of other common legal matters.
“We provide a unique service, which is helping small businesses and families prepare their own legal documents,” said Liu. “There are other websites that specialize in only one or a few services, but only LegalZoom offers a comprehensive solution for people’s legal document and filing needs.”
The company says that Alan Spoon, the former president of The Washington Post Company and current board member of several leading media companies, including IAC/InterActiveCorp and Getty Images, will join LegalZoom.com’s board of directors along with Jason Trevisan, principal of Polaris Venture Partners. In addition, LegalZoom says that Kamran Pourzanjani, president and co-founder of the leading price comparison web site, PriceGrabber.com, is also joining its board of directors.
“Families and businesses repeatedly need to handle essential legal documents such as wills and filings, but it can be cumbersome and expensive to hire an attorney. LegalZoom.com has built a strong business by providing broader access to the legal information and documents that millions of people need,” said Alan Spoon, managing general partner at Polaris Venture Partners. “We look forward to collaborating with the team as they continue to expand their business.”
LegalZoom.com – www.legalzoom.com
Polaris Venture Partners - www.polarisventures.com
