Irish software company Brightflag has raised $8.5m (€7.5m) in Series A funding. The round was led by US investor Sands Capital Ventures, with additional funding from Frontline Ventures and Tribal Ventures.

Sands Capital Ventures has invested €4.5m, while Frontline Ventures has invested €2.1m. Tribal Ventures has stumped up €575,000 in the funding round while Enterprise Ireland has provided €250,000 of taxpayer funding.

Brightflag – formerly called LegalShine – launched in 2015 with its spend management software platform developed for corporate legal teams.

The AI-powered platform organises e-billing, matter management, invoice review and accruals management. Brightflag’s customers include Telstra and Uber, and it has offices in Dublin, Sydney and New York.

Brightflag was founded by Ian Nolan and Alex Kelly. Nolan previously worked in software development and consultancy

In Association with

Previous fundraisers for Brightflag saw Enterprise Ireland pony up €300,000. Tribal Ventures and Frontline Ventures were also involved in funding rounds between 2016 and 2017 that raised c. €2m for the software startup.

The most recent account filings for Brightflag’s operating company, Shine Analytics, are for 2017. Brightflag more than doubled its turnover in 2017 to €798,000, but booked a loss of €357,000, which brought accumulated losses to €1.2m.

CEO Ian Nolan said the latest funding will help Brightflag hire more staff across its three offices. “Our team has built an amazing technology that is driving real change in the legal industry, and we're excited to play a part in this sea-change,” Nolan added.

Photo: Ian Nolan (right) and Alex Kelly