Strategic Investment in LEXcelerate Limited
Lift Global Ventures PLC
23 July 2026
Lift Global Ventures plc
Strategic Investment in LEXcelerate Limited
Lift invests in LEXcelerate, the AI-driven legal technology business aiming to cut UK remortgage completion times from six to eight weeks to around two
Lift Global Ventures plc ("Lift" or the "Company"), an investment and acquisition company focused on foundational artificial intelligence, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to invest £30,000 in LEXcelerate Limited ("LEXcelerate"), the legal technology business whose AI-enabled platform is designed to transform the UK conveyancing and remortgage market by automating around 90% of the administrative work in a property transaction.
Highlights
· Proposed investment of £30,000 in LEXcelerate as part of its current £375,000 fundraising round.
· Investment to be made at a £3.0 million pre-money valuation through the subscription for Ordinary Shares.
· Expected post-investment holding of approximately 0.89% of LEXcelerate's enlarged share capital.
· LEXcelerate has developed a proprietary AI workflow-driven conveyancing platform designed to cut remortgage completion times from the industry norm of six to eight weeks to approximately two, automating around 90% of administrative tasks and reducing fee-earner time to approximately 15 minutes per transaction.
· Investment aligns with Lift's strategy of backing innovative AI-enabled technology businesses addressing large, underserved markets.
· LEXcelerate is led by Paul Firth, former UK Managing Partner of DLA Piper, alongside co-founder and platform architect Mark Hewitt, whose previous legal software venture was acquired by NASDAQ-listed Verisk Analytics.
Investment Details
LEXcelerate is raising £375,000 at a pre-money valuation of £3.0 million to commence commercial operations. Lift's investment will be made through the subscription for Ordinary Shares and is expected to result in an ownership interest of approximately 0.89% following completion.
About LEXcelerate
LEXcelerate is a UK legal technology company developing an AI-enabled conveyancing and remortgage platform designed to transform one of the country's most inefficient legal services markets. Its proprietary workflow-driven software combines intelligent automation, real-time client engagement, and a pooled legal resource model to streamline the conveyancing process, with the aim of reducing remortgage completion times from the current industry norm of six to eight weeks to approximately two weeks. LEXcelerate initially targets the UK remortgage market before expanding into the broader residential conveyancing sector, providing technology that improves efficiency, transparency and customer experience for consumers, brokers and legal professionals alike.
The Board of Lift believes LEXcelerate represents an attractive opportunity within the legal technology sector. The UK remortgage market processes more than one million transactions each year, generating over £400-500 million in legal fees, yet completion times have barely changed in decades. LEXcelerate was co-founded by Paul Firth, former UK Managing Partner of DLA Piper and a Legal 500 Hall of Fame inductee, and platform architect Mark Hewitt, whose previous legal software venture was acquired by NASDAQ-listed Verisk Analytics.
Strategic Rationale
The Board believes the investment complements Lift's strategy of investing in businesses applying artificial intelligence and workflow automation to large, fragmented industries. LEXcelerate's platform addresses longstanding inefficiencies in the UK property transaction market and is supported by an experienced management team with significant legal and technology expertise.
Mark Horrocks, Non-Executive Director of Lift, commented:
"LEXcelerate represents exactly the type of technology business we seek to back. It combines deep legal expertise with intelligent automation to solve a genuine, everyday problem. Remortgaging is a million-transaction-a-year market running on processes that have barely changed in decades - a platform that cuts completion times from six to eight weeks to around two does not just improve the customer experience, it rewires the economics of an entire sector. We believe LEXcelerate is exceptionally well positioned to create significant long-term value."
Related Party Transaction
Yorkshire AI Labs LLP ("YAIL") is a 35% shareholder in LEXcelerate.
As David Richards, Executive Chairman of the Company, is the Managing Partner of YAIL, the LEXcelerate investment is a related party transaction under Rule 4.6 of the AQSE Growth Market Access Rulebook.
Mr Richards is a director and shareholder of DJHP Holdings Limited, which is a designated member of YAIL and holds a 40% equity interest in YAIL. Notwithstanding the LEXcelerate investment, YAIL's shareholding in the Company remains at 16.90%.
The Board, excluding Mr Richards, having exercised reasonable skill, care and diligence, considers the transaction to be fair and reasonable insofar as the shareholders of the Company are concerned.
Under the working relationship with YAIL, all investments will be undertaken on arm's-length commercial terms to ensure strong governance and full alignment with shareholder interests. The Board believes this relationship provides a unique growth platform combining the Company's access to public markets with YAIL's proven ability to source, build and scale exceptional AI-driven businesses.
The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, which forms part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR"). Upon publication of this announcement, this information is considered to be in the public domain.
Enquiries
|
Lift Global Ventures plc |
|||
|
David Richards MBE - Executive Chairman |
via Oberon |
||
|
Oberon Capital (AQSE Corporate Adviser and Broker) |
+44 (0)203 179 5300 |
||
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.
ENDRNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.