Spectrum Equity has made a growth equity investment in The Expert Institute, an online platform used by law firms to find and connect with expert witness candidates.
The Expert Institute (TEI) connects pre-screened qualified experts in every field with lawyers looking for technical expertise, consultative support, expert witness testimony, and case-specific guidance. The company, led by CEO Michael Talve, was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Los Angeles and Dallas (www.theexpertinstitute.com).
Since its founding, TEI has assisted over 4,000 law firms with finding and connecting with expert witnesses on more than 30,000 cases. The company has a global network of over 3 million experts that are available for cases involving medical malpractice, personal injury, general liability, mass torts, real estate, energy, securities, and patent litigation. Each expert is comprehensively screened and vetted, including analyses of professional sanctions, admissibility challenges, license verification, and background checks. The Expert Institute was voted the #1 Expert Witness Provider of 2018 by The National Law Journal and 2017 by the New York Law Journal.
“TEI has filled a much-needed void in the market, providing a unique and highly valuable service to leading law firms by streamlining the historically disjointed and unstructured process of finding expert witnesses,” said Mike Farrell, a Managing Director at Spectrum Equity. “TEI is uniquely positioned to continue to serve its customers through a highly differentiated and cost-effective service. We are thrilled to partner with Michael Talve and the rest of the TEI team as they continue to provide a world-class service to leading law firms.”
The investment by Spectrum is the TEI’s first institutional capital and proceeds of the investment will be used to further scale operations, broaden its areas of practice and pursue business development opportunities through product expansion. “It’s been exciting to see how Michael Talve and his team have taken TEI from concept to high-growth category leader with no outside, institutional capital,” said Jake Heller, a Principal at Spectrum Equity. “These characteristics of capital efficiency and bootstrapped leadership are what we look for in our portfolio companies, and we are eager to support TEI management on the next phase of growth and success.”
Spectrum Equity invests in growth companies in the information industry with particular interest in internet and digital media; communications, media and entertainment; and software and information. The firm closed its eighth fund, Spectrum Equity VIII LP, with $1.25 billion in capital commitments in October 2017. Spectrum Equity was founded in 1994 and has offices in Boston and San Francisco (www.spectrumequity.com).
“We are excited to partner with Spectrum Equity given their extensive experience in scaling subscription information services companies, breadth of relevant portfolio companies, and depth of network,” said Mr. Talve. “This partnership marks an important milestone for TEI’s development, and we are eager to execute upon our shared strategic vision for the company.”
Morrison Cohen provided legal services to The Expert Institute and Latham & Watkins provided legal services to Spectrum Equity.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 16, 2018
