AIB will take a minority stake in Johnson Hana following a €10.5m investment in the alternative legal services company.
The investment will be used to scale Johnson Hana to help the company meet demand at home and abroad. The firm has now raised €15m since its inception in 2017, including €3.5m in 2020.
The company undertakes high-volume legal process work such as contract management, litigation support, privacy requests and securitisations through a combination of lawyers, legal technologies and project management methodologies.
Existing investors, including PwC Hong Kong partner John Ryan, software investor Finlay Ross, and Kenmare Resources plc financial director Tom Hickey, have reinvested as part of the funding round.
Additionally, Enterprise Ireland, and Voxpro founders Dan and Linda Kiely, have retained their investment.
In Association with
“I am thrilled to welcome AIB as our partner in our mission to revolutionise legal services," said Dan Fox, CEO of Johnson Hana.
"We believed that businesses were frustrated by the singular option of using a law firm for all legal and compliance projects.
"Despite competing against century-old brands in a tradition-bound space, we have become one of the leading players in the provision of legal process work and AIB is the perfect partner to help us further our growth ambitions.”
Cathy Bryce, head of AIB Capital Markets, said: “AIB is delighted to partner with Johnson Hana and its management team to provide the necessary capital to enable further rapid growth, positive disruption, and transformational client wins.
"Johnson Hana continues to innovate with game-changing engagements with the world’s leading organisations. Now is the perfect time for us to provide significant capital to enhance its growth and scale.”
The announcement comes after a sustained period of growth for Johnson Hana, whose client list now includes Airbnb, Wayflyer, Twitter, Ryanair, and Ervia. Goodbody Corporate Finance advised Johnson Hana on the funding round.
Filings for Johnson Hana International Ltd, which was fully owned by Fox and co-founded with his brother Alex Fox, show the Dublin-based firm made a loss of €475,000 in 2020 following a loss of close to €200,000 in 2019.
Turnover totaled €1.8m, down slightly from €1.9m in 2019, while costs (€1.1m) and administrative expenses (€1.2m) reduced year-on-year. The company employed eight people in 2020, an increase of three from 2019.
At the end of the year, the company had assets of €2.7m, up from €812,000 and liabilities of €994,000, up from €539,000, and its net assets increased by €1.4m.
Image: (L-R) Alex Fox, CCO and co-founder Johnson Hana, Cathy Bryce, managing director, AIB Capital Markets and Dan Fox, CEO and co-founder, Johnson Hana.
