Nexl, a no-data-entry CRM platform for lawyers, has raised $4 million in a financing round led by Australian-based B2B venture capital firm EVP with follow-on participation from The Legal Tech Fund, Vulpes and Saniel Ventures.

Nexl said it will use the investment to accelerate the development of its core product, increase acquisition efforts in major markets, and attract industry talent to build out its fast-developing ecosystem for partners and clients alike.

Nexl said its product is in use at more than 100 law firms in 37 countries, including such firms as EvershedsWiersholmDentonsBartier PerryPolsinelli, and Al Tamimi.

Read more about Nexl in the LawNext Legal Technology directory.

Founder and CEO Philipp Thurner

Unlike traditional CRM products, Nexl works by automatically capturing all of a lawyer’s interactions, including emails and meetings, and then passively mapping all relationships and interactions among firm members, prospects, and clients on an ongoing basis.

The company was founded by Philipp Thurner, who previously led innovation at Gilbert and Tobin, a premier Australian corporate law firm. He had the goal of developing a relationship platform that functions in environments where client acquisition activity is passive, unstructured, and entirely relationship dependent.

“Relationships are everything in professional services, yet the management of these relationships usually relies on decentralized and largely disorganized communication and information-sharing practices,” Thurner said. “Management and growth teams within law firms will generally have very little visibility as to the strength of individual client relationships and the context behind each.”

Having launched its platform just 18 months ago, Nexl said that raising money in the toughest investment climate in recent memory is validation of its thesis.