Court Buddy, a San Francisco-based company that matches consumers and small businesses with attorneys who provide a la carte services at fixed rates, has raised a $6 million Series A round of funding, bringing the total raise by the company to $7.1 million.

The company says it will use the new round of funding to ramp up growth in new markets and to hire top talent to to support the company’s growth and expansion plans.

The venture capital firm NFX led the round, which was joined by First Round Capital, Kapor Capital, and existing investors LDR Ventures, Lightspeed’s LSS Fund, Gingerbread Capital, UpHonest Capital, L.A. Women Angels, and several angel investors including Warner Bros. Vice President of Production Niija Kuykendall, and Silicon Valley veteran investor and former 500 Startups partner Monique Woodard.

NFX managing partner James Currier will join Court Buddy’s board of directors, which also consists of Court Buddy’s founders Kristina Jones and James Jones Jr., and LDR Ventures’ Drew Koven.

Kristina and James Jones, who are married, launched Court Buddy in 2015 after James, an attorney, saw the increasing numbers of people who were representing themselves in courts because they could not afford an attorney. The couple decided to launch a platform that would enable clients to find attorneys based on their budgets and needs.

The service allows consumers to choose the a-la-carte legal services they need at flat rates and then connects them to pre-screened solo and small law firm attorneys. Once connected, consumers and attorneys can instant message and video chat through the platform, and clients can make secured payments to attorneys.

In its short history, Court Buddy has won recognition on several fronts. It was the 2017 winner of the American Bar Association’s Brown Select Award for Legal Access, a winner of the inaugural American Entrepreneurship Award in 2016, and was named the 2015 Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge People’s Pick Winner. Court Buddy also won the first-ever Women in Tech award sponsored by Silicon Valley Forum. Earlier this year, it won a Webby Award in the category of law.

In 2017, Kristina made history by becoming the 14th African-American woman ever to lead a company that raised $1 million or more in venture capital.

Court Buddy was a participant in the inaugural 2017 ABA Techshow startup pitch competition, for which I was an organizer and judge.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.