Summize Secures £5m in YFM and Maven Investment

Manchester-based contract lifecycle management disruptor Summize has secured £5m Series A investment from YFM Equity Partners (YFM) and Maven Capital Partners (Maven), as it looks to build its presence in the US and further develop its intelligent SaaS legal technology.

Founded in 2018, Summize has experienced rapid growth by taking a disruptive approach to a traditional sector. Its world-first integrated contract lifecycle management (CLM) software is uniquely designed to make contract workflows smarter and up to 85 per cent faster by digitising and automating manual legal processes. The solution integrates into the daily life of any business via established platforms including Teams and Slack, improving collaboration between in-house legal and business users.  

Summize has more than 100 businesses worldwide on its platform, including Fujifilm, Everton FC, NCC Group, Moonpig and The Modern Milkman.  

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The funding, raised through YFM’s British Smaller Companies VCTs and the Maven VCTs will see Summize capitalise on the growth opportunity in the global CLM software market, which is forecast to reach $3.30bn by 2027. The business will expand into key overseas territories, in addition to supercharging product innovation, sales and marketing.  

Tom Dunlop, co-founder and CEO at Summize, said: “Summize aims to drive greater value from business contracts by speeding up and automating the end-to-end process, from creating a contract through to analytics and summaries. Unlike many of our competitors, our system integrates directly with existing collaboration tools, which is vital for adoption across the business.  

“The Series A funding will enable us to build out our sales and marketing capabilities and accelerate expansion with a presence in the US, which is a huge potential market for us. We will also continue scaling what we have already built with further product development and innovation – we have a clearly defined target market and products with the functionality to meet a very real business need.”
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Tom Dunlop, CEO @ Summize

Mike Clarke, investment partner at YFM, said: “Summize are deliberately different and we like their disruptive approach. They have developed a really effective solution to helping drive legal departments and processes on the digital journey, and one which is attractive to users as it operates as an extension of existing ways of working. The efficiency benefits are quickly apparent to clients with estimates that users of the platform save 85 per cent in time spent reviewing contracts.

“Summize also benefits from having a very experienced senior management team for this stage of the business, and a clear vision of where they are going. We are excited to be supporting them as they continue on their growth journey.”

Mike Clarke, Investment Partner @ YFM

James Darlington, Investment Director at Maven, said: “Maven is delighted to be backing Summize. It is an attractive opportunity for the Maven VCTs to invest in a rapidly growing business which has made strong commercial progress in terms of sales growth and new customer wins. We have been impressed with the ambition, skill and knowledge of the management team and we are confident they will continue to drive the business forward and deliver on their growth ambitions.”

The YFM investment team comprised Laura Sisson, Mike Clarke and Ian Waterfield.  

Other advisors on the deal included: Graph Strategy (James Tetherton and Matt Harrison), James Bagan, Chris Waterhouse, BHP (Fletcher Adamowicz), David Gallimore, Vista (Peter Warburton and Daniel Blake), Shoosmiths (James Foster and Sophie Davies), Catalysis (Mike Hicks), Philip Hare & Associates (Philip Hare and Tom Hopley) and Pannone (Mark Winthorpe and Miranda Foy).  

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About YFM

YFM typically invests between £2m and £10m per transaction into businesses with strong growth potential located across the UK regions through YFM’s network of offices in London, Leeds, Manchester, Reading and Birmingham.  

YFM Equity Partners are specialist, independently owned, private equity investors. Celebrating our 40th year of investing experience, we seek to unlock value and growth potential by providing up to £10 million of equity to fuel the development of established business throughout the UK regions. We do this by helping our portfolio companies grow niche businesses, launch new initiatives, make transformative acquisitions, and upgrade technologies and systems. We are dedicated to working alongside management teams to create long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in and a positive economic impact for the communities in which we work. We manage funds in excess of £420 million which include venture capital trusts and private equity funds.

YFM Equity Partners conducts its investment business through its subsidiary YFM Private Equity Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 122120).  

About Maven Capital Partners

Maven is a leading private equity house focused on the provision of flexible funding for high growth businesses, and one of the most active investors in smaller companies in the UK. Headquartered in Glasgow, and with offices throughout the UK, Maven has over 90 investment and support professionals providing a truly nationwide coverage. Maven has over £740 million funds under management and ready to invest, and manages assets for a variety of client funds, including Venture Capital Trusts, MBO Fund, UK regional fund mandates, and Maven Investor Partners, a syndicate of institutional, family office and experienced investors.