Simmons & Simmons, an international law firm based in the UK, has established a £100,000 fund to provide free legal advice to Fintech startups. Angus McLean, partner and Fintech Lead at Simmons, said the fund was created to address challenges in finding the right kind of legal support;
“Our vision is for the S&S FinTech Fund to help promising start-ups solve challenging legal or regulatory problems that could otherwise slow down their development or, in some cases, prevent them from getting off the ground at all,” stated McLean.
The intent is to provide up to £33,000 of legal advice to three or four Fintech startups each year. Fintech startups that want to apply must not have received more than £1 million in early stage investing and must be affiliated with an established UK accelerator or referred by a known VC.
Simmons & Simmons is already counsel for some UK based Fintech firms. Providing free legal advice at an early stage is probably not a bad way to grow their business.