Addleshaw Goddard to launch mentoring program for fintech firms

Addleshaw Goddard, a corporate law firm, announced that it will launch a programme that is worth up to £500K in a move to support more established, as well as startup fintech firms in the UK.

The programme ‘AG Elevate’ will launch at an event in London on the 17th November and will provide a package of free legal advice along with a mentoring programme for fintech companies. The programme mentors will be drawn from AG's most experienced fintech lawyers, the official release stated.

"We have unique expertise acting on some of the most complex fintech transactions and structuring digital mobile and technology solutions services for our clients. The fintechs we support through Elevate will have access to some of the very best experience and knowhow from senior lawyers operating in this space and we are well placed to pass on our expertise through mentoring them," William James, head of AG's Payments team said.

The law firm will be working with their promotional partners including FinTech Connect, a global platform and community for the FinTech industry, and PayExpo, the UK’s largest payments event to partner with fintech accelerator programmes in order to find the potential startups for the programme.

‘AG Elevate’ will have two programmes and both will be offering mentoring services and free legal advice, together with access to AG's training sessions and networking events. The first one will focus on early-stage start-ups with no more than £1million of investment. The second is directed at start-ups with 'Series A' funding of more than £1 million.

"Working with AG enabled us to access our market faster and with more confidence, from a legal context, than we would have been otherwise able to. What struck us about AG in comparison to other organisations we were in discussions with, was their adept ability to apply legal thinking from a practical business perspective. Without the marriage of these two aspects we doubt the outcome would have been quite so successful," James Harrison, Managing Director of Billhub Payments, an existing FinTech client said.

The company will announce the application process and the criteria for selection, during the launch event.