AnthroTek, a fast-growing synthetic anatomy startup, has made history by becoming the first company to close a £950,000 seed round using Legal AI instead of traditional law firms, cutting legal costs by 90% and accelerating access to capital. This milestone sets a new precedent for UK startups.
AnthroTek’s Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Nazmus Tareque, was quoted £15,000-£20,000 by multiple UK law firms to handle the seed round. Instead he used Genie AI’s £30-per-month plan to draft, review, and negotiate all key legal documents, including shareholder agreements, articles of association, term sheets, and subscription agreements.
The deal, part of £1.15 million raised to date at a £10.5 million pre-money valuation, with a further £550,000 tranche expected in the next 12 months, shrank legal turnaround times from weeks to days, and freed up critical funds. For early-stage startups, where every pound counts, this means more capital can go directly towards product development and growth.
“We completed a complex set of documents in a fraction of the usual time, and with minimal to zero external legal spend with Genie AI”, said Tareque. “Beyond powering our funding round, Genie also handled our Material Transfer Agreement, IP assignments and NDAs, allowing us to stay focused on scaling and innovating in synthetic anatomy. I know that many founders are frustrated by the current legal fee system. My background as a graduate in law helped give me the confidence to do things differently. The market will show no loyalty to traditional legal services if AI systems keep generating more value for the dollar spent. Why should it?”
Seed-stage funding rounds in the UK are notoriously costly and time-consuming. Traditional legal fees can consume 2-5% of capital raised in early-stage seed rounds, significantly impacting growth potential. Fees for priced equity rounds commonly range between £10,000 and £100,000, with many startups burdened by additional investor legal fees, sometimes exceeding £200,000. This “seed round tax” siphons off critical capital that could otherwise fuel hiring and product innovation.
Seed rounds typically require 50-60 lawyer hours (billed at an average £350 per hour), but much of it is spent on repetitive tasks that could easily be automated.
By automating the drafting, review, and negotiation of complex legal documents, Genie AI removes costly intermediaries, enabling founders and investors to close deals faster, reduce friction, and deploy capital more efficiently. This efficiency not only accelerates startup growth, but also allows investors to see quicker returns – a significant advantage during early-stage rounds. It cost-effectively puts the control back into the hands of founders and investors.
Rafie Faruq, Co-Founder and CEO of Genie AI, added: "This is an incredible landmark in startup and business history. Startups all over the world no longer have to pay £20-30k to do their investment deals. These fees are ridiculous - especially when these lawyers are making tweaks to what are essentially standard templates.
“By eliminating costly legal bottlenecks, AnthroTek has set a new standard for speed and trust in Legal AI for startup funding rounds. This is the future of startup financing.”
Nat Wei, Baron Wei, Member of House of Lords, investor and Genie AI user, offered his perspective on the impact of legal AI for startups: "Wider access to legal support is essential to the future of UK entrepreneurship. Solutions such as those being developed by Genie AI, which use autonomous legal agents, illustrate how technology can provide a practical alternative to traditional legal services in fundraising.
Such innovations point to the future of legal provision for founders—scalable, cost-efficient, and capable of reducing the barriers of time and cost that too often constrain innovation and growth across the UK economy."
