A new AI-native law firm, Keith, has raised £2 million in seed funding ahead of its launch this summer, aiming to become the UK’s most technologically advanced law firm at launch, and to rebuild one of the country’s most outdated industries from the ground up.
Backed VC have led Keith’s seed round, with Breega, Notion Capital and several angel investors also making up the £2m.
Andre De Haes, Partner at Backed VC, said: For most people, dealing with a solicitor means waiting, chasing and not knowing what’s going on. Keith removed those pain-points using technology, and we’re hugely excited to back the business.
The startup’s founders are highly experienced. Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman previously founded the market-leading plant-based food brand THIS. Sam Tucker is Keith’s third founder, previously he started hybrid scheduling platform Common Surface and now oversees product at Keith. Eddie Goldsmith, former Chairman of the UK Conveyancing Association and founder of a market-leading conveyancing firm in the 90s, is a strategic advisor and non-exec Director.
Why Conveyancing Needs a Fix:
The company is not another legal software tool, it will be a fully regulated law firm built with AI at its core and with a clear ambition: to automate up to 80% of traditionally human legal work.
Each year, more than 530,000 UK property transactions fall through, causing untold emotional and financial strain, within a system widely seen as slow, opaque and fundamentally broken. Conveyancing will be Keith’s first market, before it expands to other practice areas.
Andy Shovel, Keith Co-Founder, commented: I tried to buy a house around a year ago and had a monumental shocker. Sleepless nights, hounding solicitors and a dodgy seller, the full works. I was blown away by how clunky the process was, and how no technology was being incorporated to help.
How Keith Works:
At the core of Keith is a network of specialized AI agents that handle document review, drafting, communication and workflow management, all within tightly controlled legal frameworks and with human oversight.
The result is a firm designed to operate continuously, rapidly and with client service levels usually only available to high net-worth clients.
The startup is targeting a 70% reduction in transaction times in the hope of mitigating risk and stress for clients.
In a first for UK legal services, The startup’s client service agent will be available 24/7 via phone and WhatsApp, and will be almost indistinguishable from a person, with the ability to answer questions, provide updates and take actions instantly.
The company is entering a £54 billion UK legal market that remains highly fragmented and largely unchanged for decades, a market it believes is now ripe to be disrupted by tech-first brands like Keith.
Andy Shovel, Keith Co-Founder, added: Legal services haven’t yet been transformed by tech. But it’s coming. And when it does, it won’t look like a traditional law firm with software bolted on, we think it will look like Keith.
Ben Marrel, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Breega, said: Conveyancing is broken in ways most people have experienced personally. Andy, Pete and Sam have the product instinct and the ambition to fix it properly. At Breega, we’re excited to support them as they build a defining brand in UK LegalTech.
The startup aims to launch in Q3 2026 and is hiring now.
