Swiftcourt, the startup that wants to make it easier to settle smaller disputes, last week announced an investment by SEED Capital.
Swiftcourt is an online platform that offers quick conflict resolution in disputes often under € 1000 to companies and individuals. By focusing on a certain type of lawsuits they can offer to settle them at a fraction of the cost of a possible lawsuit.
“Trade has changed and moved online. Today trade barriers are very low and we are dealing with anonymous people in the global online market and very often these transactions lack a contractual relationship. The legal system has not renewed itself and is not geared for the new conditions upon which we consumers operates today”, says Johan Hedén Hultgren, CEO of Swiftcourt.
A real problem
It is not only Swiftcourt that sees their concept as interesting. The startup has already attracted strong forces in the form of investments from the US business angel, Ciaran McCourt and the Swedish business angel Jan Sturesson who is Global Industry Leader at PwC. In addition, the startup has attracted Mike Moghaddas as chairman. Mike was one of the backbones of the merger of Japanese Sony and Swedish Ericsson in 2001. Now SEED Capital announced that they have invested in Swiftcourt of over € 500 000 to the further development of the company.
“We believe that Swiftcourt solves a real problem and plugs a gap that would otherwise have been characterized by mistrust. Swiftcourt rides on the peer-to-peer wave and democratize justice through their solution. It is our hope that Swiftcourt may become the standard way to handle minor disputes”, says Richard Breiter investment manager of SEED Capital.
The idea is also welcomed in the legal industry:
“Technology has revolutionized the way and, not least, the frequency with which we as citizens deal with each other. The established legal system may not be optimally adapted to take care of minor discrepancies between private traders, as a traditional lawsuit can be a lengthy and costly affair. Swiftcourts concept is very interesting and can help to rethink the way we use and develop the legal system.” says Peter Damsholt Langsted, Lawyer at Bech Bruun.
An oresund startup
Swiftcourt is also an interesting startup considering it’s place in the Øresund region. Started with co-founders studying law at Lunds University, they competed and won at the Venture Cup. After this they became a part of the Think incubator at Mindpark, and now they have gotten an investment by SEED Capital and located to offices in Copenhagen. That is truly taking advantage of the region and it’s possibilities.
About Swiftcourt
The idea of Swiftcourt originally came from Jakob Elander when he saw that legal disputes under € 10 000 never reached the courts. Jakob Elander dug a little deeper and found out that such cases did not reach the courtrooms because of high costs, slow turnaround in the courts and legal language barriers.
The problem Swiftcourt is solving is basically simple. When buying something online, at eBay for example, and a conflict with the seller arises, it is hard to get justice. You can take the case through public courts, but such a process often takes around 6-12 months until a judgment is made and costs anywhere between € 5 000 to 10 000, which is often much more than what you originally gave for your goods. This means that the law is unavailable when the dispute is on lower amounts.
Swiftcourt has a smart way of making a dispute be settled much faster, and therefor cheaper. This enables individuals and small- & medium-sized companies to secure their transactions and contracts with an underlying dispute resolution as well as solving their legal disputes in under 6 weeks with a legally binding verdict. Swiftcourts vision is to be the global standard solution for solving legal disputes on lower amounts and has so far been a part of over 500+ transactions and solved 6 disputes.