UnitedLex BPO Receives Investment

Investment groups Helion, Canaan and Sequoia acquire shares in UnitedLex and co-founder Ajay Agrawal sells his entire stake in the company.

Helion Venture Fund I and Canaan Advisors Pvt Ltd have raised their holding in an existing portfolio firm UnitedLex, a Gurgaon-based legal process outsourcing firm. Sequoia also joined in buying part of the stake that was sold by co-founder Ajay Agrawal.

Although UnitedLex did not disclose details of the transaction, the three investors have acquired 18.1 per cent stake in UnitedLex BPO Pvt Ltd for a total consideration of $16.68 million (75.3 crore), according to a report in ET.

Two of the three venture capital firms are existing shareholders of UnitedLex. Helion originally invested in January 2007 and followed it up with a further investment in July 2008 when Canaan also joined in.

UnitedLex BPO, a legal process outsourcing company, offers intellectual property, contract management, litigation support and immigration support services. The firm also focuses on offshore solutions including process mapping, performance baselining and process re-engineering services.

Agrawal who served as a securities law expert in various firms during 1994-2006, struck out as an entrepreneur in October 2006 and co-founded UnitedLex in the legal process outsourcing and strategic legal technology space.

He was part of the leadership team that led the UnitedLex through a period of rapid growth and geographical expansion by developing a new range of technology-powered solutions in the domains of contracts management, patent analytics and trademark solutions and has several pending patents as an innovator.

For the year ended March, 2010, UnitedLex BPO had a total income of Rs 29 crore, with net loss of Rs 68 lakh, according to VCCedge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.