Peppermint secures major investment, strengthens board
Peppermint Technology, the award-winning legal and dispute management technology provider, has received a multi-million pound investment from leading venture capital firm Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) that will allow it to accelerate its growth and disruption of the legal and dispute management market.
Peppermint currently has more than 5,000 users across 30 legal and dispute management firms, including the likes of Blake Morgan, Penningtons Manches and Ombudsman Services. Launched in 2010, Peppermint has doubled its revenue in each of the last three years and now has 60 staff operating from its Nottingham base.
In addition to securing funding of over £10 million, Peppermint has strengthened its board with the appointment of Neville Davis as Chairman and Mike Kent as CFO. A highly experienced businessman, Davis was the senior independent non-executive director at legal software supplier Tikit prior to its sale to BT and was previously CEO of Compel and Chair of Amor and Fourth. Kent was previously the CFO at both Tikit and legal digital dictation specialist BigHand.
SEP’s investment was led by Gordon Beveridge, Director of SEP. Peppermint’s original investor, OLM Systems, who has been instrumental in Peppermint’s success to date, remains a shareholder.
Peppermint’s Platform, based on the Microsoft Dynamics Platform, combines all the different software applications required by a legal and dispute management firm. The Platform can share data across a sophisticated suite of built in collaboration tools allowing firms to transform the delivery of services and improve the efficiency of their back office operations. Peppermint was the first new software entrant to the legal and dispute management market in 20 years and it has continuously aimed to innovate and provide a software platform that far outstrips what any other legal and dispute management vendor can do.
Arlene Adams, the founder and CEO of Peppermint, says: “We have grown rapidly over the past five years and are seeing increasing interest from legal and dispute management firms seeking an innovative industry platform. This funding will enable us to invest further in our product and our people to meet that demand. We are pleased to have secured SEP, with their significant experience of supporting high growth businesses, as investors and look forward to working with them to achieve Peppermint’s full potential as the dominant player in the legal and dispute management market.”
Gordon Beveridge of SEP said: “We have been very impressed with the achievements and growth of Peppermint to date. This investment, together with the appointments of Neville Davis and Mike Kent, will underpin the future growth of the business enabling it to continue to develop innovative, market-leading disruptive software.”
Grant Thornton advised Peppermint on the transaction.