David Eldridge and Neil MacDougall join board of legal tech scale-up, Apperio

Global News

28
Jan
2021

Editor

Apperio, a legal tech scale-up, has appointed an established technology entrepreneur and a leading private equity specialist to its board to help drive its growth and geographical expansion.

Apperio is a SaaS-based legal spend analytics and matter tracking platform that helps corporate legal departments bring clarity, control and confidence to their operations. Today, Apperio’s platform is used by dozens of in-house legal teams, including Monzo, Network Rail and Royal London and an increasing number of private equity firms. It has raised £11m to date and its investors include Draper Esprit, IQ Capital and Notion.

David Eldridge, who joins Apperio as Chairman, has more than 25 years’ experience in the technology industry. He co-founded and led marketing technology company Alterian, listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and overseeing five acquisitions in the UK and US before selling the company to SDL plc. Since 2011, David has held advisory and board positions with high growth technology and data businesses.

"Apperio is at a fascinating stage in its journey. It’s in a great position with a fantastic and passionate team, a SaaS offering proven to deliver rapid return on investment for major organizations and the backing of first-rate institutional investors,” says Eldridge. “I am excited to support Nicholas and the team as they expand into new territories and continue to evolve Apperio’s offering to more stakeholders in the huge legal industry.”

Joining as a Non-Executive Director, Neil MacDougall has spent 20 years at mid-market buyout firm Silverfleet, leading the buyout of the company from Prudential in 2007. Neil was Silverfleet’s Managing Partner between 2004 and 2019 and became Chairman in 2019. In 2020 Neil was appointed as Chair of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, the industry body for the private equity and venture capital industry in the UK.

"Apperio stands at the intersection of technology, data and legal spend. This is, for example, extremely important in private equity where annual legal costs are counted in the millions, data is critical to effective decision-making and technology is a crucial source of competitive advantage,” says MacDougall. “Apperio is already achieving significant traction in the private equity space and I’m excited to be joining the board to help the company accelerate its momentum."

“Apperio has enjoyed a phenomenal period of growth in the last two years. The legal spend we manage on behalf of clients now exceeds over £1bn, our revenues are up 150% and we’ve successfully launched into the US,” says Apperio Founder and CEO Nicholas d’Adhemar. “David and Neil bring the experience, expertise and caliber Apperio needs to both expand our presence in private equity and drive our broader growth and development. We’re delighted to welcome them both to our team.”