vLex has closed a 4 million euros investment round with "la Caixa" (through Caixa Capital TIC fund) as the lead investor. Current partners and public investment from the Avanza Plan and ENISA have also joined the round. The round will allow vLex to strengthen its presence in the Latin American market with the aim of becoming the leader for online legal information in Spanish-speaking countries.
vLex provides an online legal research platform (http://vlex.com) serving the professional (lawyers and paralegals), government, academic and corporate markets.
vLex.com offers simple and effective search and information management tools. Through a powerful self-learning search engine, the customer can quickly research more than 62 million documents and find the answer to their information needs. vLex also provides access to the service through mobile devices (smartphones and tablets).
Over 40,000 paid users worldwide are subscribed to its online platform, which gives access to one of the most comprehensive publisher catalogues on the market. The company has agreements with over 1,000 publishers worldwide, such as the World Bank, Gale, Proquest or the European Union.
vLex, founded in Barcelona, employs over 120 professionals in its Barcelona, Madrid, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Bogota and Mexico FD offices. vLex's business model is based on subscription payment.
Among the distinguished clients of vLex are Yale University, the University of California, Berkeley, Petrobas, the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico, the Federal House of Representatives in Brazil, Garrigues and Cuatrecasas in Spain. Founders Lluís and Àngel Faus have led the project since 1999. Other vLex projects are Diariojuridico.com (an online legal newspaper) and Lexdir.com (a lawyers' directory).
The online legal information market
At a global level, the online information market business was valued at 15 billion US dollars in 2009 and is forecasted to grow to 16 billion dollars this year. (Source: Simba Information ).
Latin America market will show great business opportunities based on its size, strong economic growth and potential technological development.
About Caixa Capital Risc
Caixa Capital Risc, the venture capital division of the Spanish Bank "la Caixa", is a leading venture capital investor providing equity and quasi-equity investment to innovative early stage companies in Spain. Caixa Capital Risc is an early stage and sector specialist investor with strong focus core areas: Caixa Capital Micro, seed capital fund with resources of 8 million focused on pre-seed and seed investment opportunities. The vehicle co-invests with the entrepreneurs and Business Angels, mainly through convertible notes, before an institutional A round; Caixa Capital Biomed, Life Sciences early stage investment vehicle with 22m. focused on A rounds of mainly Spanish Bio and Medtech companies; and Caixa Capital TIC, ICT and Internet oriented early stage investment vehicle with 20m. focused on A rounds of mainly Spanish start-up's.
