Our LegalTech Thesis: Building contractual trust in India

By Shilpa Kumar, Tariq Musthafa and Aastha Kamra

If you find yourself wondering just how many contracts you sign explicitly or implicitly in the course of a day, the answer may surprise you. Nearly everything individuals and businesses do today is governed by the rules of contract law - be it renting a home, getting a job, availing a credit card, or even purchasing supplies. With the advance of the internet age and electronic commerce, contractual 'terms and conditions of service' will likely become even more common-place.

In such an environment, contractual trust becomes crucial to the well-being of consumers and businesses, forming the foundation of a well-functioning economy. An effective system is necessary to enable this trust, comprising mechanisms to both create robust, legally binding agreements and enforce these agreements with ease.

But given the unorganized market for legal services and the overburdened judicial system in the country, contracts in India are seldom generated effectively or upheld promptly. With the widespread advancement of technology and digital adoption, Legal Tech has become an area of enormous possibility to change this reality. Over 3.7K Legal Tech start-ups have mushroomed worldwide and more than $6.6 billion has been directed towards companies in Legal Tech.

This creates a promising opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors in India. We explore the potential of LegalTech segments and business models in this thesis. We hope this thesis will be useful for impact investors, entrepreneurs, venture capital funds and all other stakeholders excited by this potential.

Please do read the LegalTech thesis below or download it as a PDF here