Zimbabwean startup LawBasket has launched its legal services marketplace, securing signups from legal professionals from more than 25 African countries.
Founded in December 2018 by a team of entrepreneurs that includes two lawyers, LawBasket is an online legal services marketplace for small businesses and startups, which also offers client relationship management technology and payment processing services for lawyers.
The startup’s co-founder and head of marketing Nyasha Makamba told Disrupt Africa the platform presented a credible alternative to traditional law firms, providing a cost-certain solution to getting legal help for small businesses across Africa.
Through LawBasket Payments, the company also declutters the process of creating and managing bills for lawyers, and provides a simple portal to process multi-jurisdictional payments for legal services.
“In terms of the competition, and although the company is not a law firm, the firm broadly competes with traditional law firms, as well as other consultancy companies that provide technology-driven legal solutions. LawBasket is different from traditional law firms both in size and reach, as well as its approach to pricing legal services,” said Makamba.
LawBasket has been funded by its founders, but Makamba said it had a “clear path to revenue generation and profitability in 12 months”, with revenue expected from commissions on LawBasket jobs, premium membership, and payment processing fees through LawBasket Payments.
The startup has experienced impressive early traction, with over 130 lawyers from more than 25 African countries registering on its platform.
“It is almost 10 times bigger than the largest law firm in Zimbabwe, and is less than 40 lawyers away from surpassing the largest law firm by lawyer number in South Africa and Nigeria,” Makamba said.
LawBasket also has over 60 clients, which include small businesses and startups, from 15 countries.
“With these demographics, this means that the legal services payment processing aspect of the business is operative in 25 countries in Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Senegal amongst other countries,” Makamba said.
“We plan to increase user numbers both on the client side and the lawyer side in the current markets, with plans to introduce more lawyers from the Francophone and Lusophone markets within 12 months.”
