Superpanel Secures $5.3M Seed Funding to Automate Legal Intake Processes

For Julien Emery, this challenge has always hit close to home.

He is the CEO and co-founder of Superpanel, a platform designed to help law firms onboard new clients smoothly.

He shared personal experiences with the legal system: As a Canadian, he found accessing legal support both difficult and costly; he also recalled his mother's car accident and how the legal settlement helped sustain his family financially for years. He viewed the legal intake process—where firms assess new clients or requests—as particularly tedious.

"For consumers, it's a confusing maze of forms, phone calls, and missed connections that causes many people to give up before receiving help," he explained to TechCrunch. "For law firms, it's an expensive and error-prone bottleneck."

Before recent progress in artificial intelligence, he noted that intake was considered too complex to automate. But things have changed. Emery previously worked at Hootsuite, founded the health insurance underwriting platform Allay (which was acquired by Novo Benefits), and later partnered with his friend Dingyu Zhang, who brought AI expertise, to launch Superpanel in 2024.

Superpanel now automates about half of the legal intake work, Emery said, managing data collection and follow-up. It equips plaintiff law firms with a "digital teammate" that supports case escalation and compliance. "It interacts with clients through phone, text, email, and forums, helping them tell their story and share documents," he added. For firms, it organizes case types, jurisdictions, and documentation.

"If there's any uncertainty, the system alerts a human team member," he said. "This creates a unified, multi-channel workflow that delivers clear results and gives firms a solution they can rely on as confidently as a real employee."

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On Tuesday, the company announced a $5.3 million seed round co-led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures. Emery mentioned he connected with some investors through his previous startup, with early backers introducing him to the lead investors for this round. Other participants include LOI Venture (co-founded by Hootsuite's founder), Zenda Capital, 8-Bit Capital, and Behind Genius Ventures.

"We plan to use the funding to speed up hiring and enhance Superpanel's features for plaintiff law firms," he stated.

The legal industry is undergoing significant transformation thanks to ongoing AI innovation. Superpanel is not alone in this space—competitors include Clio Grow, LegalClerk.ai, MyCase, and Whippy.ai.

Still, Emery is confident Superpanel can stand out. "Today's consumers expect instant, self-service solutions, influenced by the AI tools and online interactions they use daily," Emery noted. "Superpanel supports them throughout that entire journey."