Athennian: Laying down the law, digitally
Did you know that in office towers all over the world there are entire floors structurally reinforced to bear the weight of . . . legal documents? The sheer poundage of physical books and records kept by companies is staggering. Imagine if all that information were to be digitized and stored not on the entire seventh floor – but in the cloud. Imagine the savings in real estate alone – not to mention the savings in time and human resources fueled by streamlined workflows and centralized document management. Enter Athennian, a Calgary cloud-based legal entity management software that powers compliance and governance.
Athennian is bringing (some might say “dragging”) the law profession into the digital age.
Josh Malate, COO, Athennian
“Legal is one of the last places for innovation to penetrate,” said COO, Josh Malate. “We’ve found a place where the environment is ripe for it.” With customers that include some of North America’s largest law firms and accounting firms, major healthcare providers and in-house legal teams around the world, Athennian helps build globally important companies.
Athennian is also drawing the attention of the world to Calgary, which is high on the list of priorities for Malate. “We have global reach and we’re committed to having our headquarters in Calgary. That brings long-term value to the city.”
Calgary has long been a global hub for business and part of that legacy is deep experience in legal and professional services. Malate observes that we have been building companies and garnering foreign investment for a long time and that it’s not much of a leap to keep doing those things, but with a focus on management of legal work specifically.
HOW IT WORKS
As a vertical B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) company, Athennian provides an entity-management software suite for paralegals, lawyers, corporate secretaries, bankers, and subsidiary governance professionals, among others, who work in large law firms and legal departments. The company likes to say that it was built for paralegals by paralegals.
At its core, legal entity management compiles and controls corporate records for companies, including ownership structures, tax strategies, corporate names, and mergers and acquisitions.
Keeping track of records and reporting requirements is an arduous process that can be easy to forget about – and can result in hefty penalties if reporting deadlines are missed. And on top of that, managing entities can be labour intensive as businesses have to deal with multiple parties and antiquated government systems.
As companies switch to outsourcing software solutions for their entity management, having reliable technology is essential. Athennian’s software automates corporate documents, reduces the risk of human error and allows legal teams to work more effectively by integrating document generation, signatures, filing and project management.
Athennian’s cloud-based software also enables companies to automate workflows (such as entity formation, appointments, transactions and annual compliance); connect disparate processes; integrate software; migrate data and documents; and produce custom reports. It also allows companies to centralize registration, governance, ownership, tax and compliance data to create a single source of truth.
According to Malate, Athennian’s ability to aggregate data and link into a variety of government sites can increase paralegal productivity tenfold; for example, forming a new company for a client that used to take an hour can now be finished in six minutes.
GROWN IN CALGARY
Founded in 2016, Athennian has benefitted from the backing and support of Calgary’s burgeoning tech sector.
“When we look at who funded our business at the start, it was all in Calgary. There’s a lot of capital and entrepreneurs here who understand risk and business and have made a lot of money”
The presence in Calgary of many tech-aware investors and of a sophisticated collection of incubators, accelerators and other supports is helping the entire city’s tech ecosystem to flourish. In 2020 alone, more than $307 million was invested in Calgary’s tech sector, a year-over-year increase of 88 per cent, or $144 million.
Athennian is a portfolio company of venture builder Thin Air Labs. Thin Air’s mandate is to build a thriving innovation ecosystem that creates the conditions for more ventures to succeed by providing capital, mentoring and networking opportunities. [Read our article about the company here.]
“We’ve benefitted hugely from the great programs that Thin Air offers,” said Malate. “That includes investments, guidance about how to negotiate non-diluted funding applications and introduction to seasoned advisors.”
In the summer of 2020, Athennian secured $8 million in Series A funding and acquired Montreal-based tax visualization startup Redox Technologies, their first acquisition. In November 2020, the company was awarded the Fast Growth Under $5 million award at the Start Alberta Tech Awards, a recognition given to the company that has demonstrated the highest annual revenue growth in their category. In early 2021, extension funding added another $7 million to Athennian’s war chest.
Having benefited from the expertise and generosity of Calgary’s tech ecosystem, Athennian is committed to giving back. Team members participate in Product Calgary, provide mentorship at the University of Calgary's computer science department and Lighthouse Labs (graduates of which Athennian regularly hires), and they also speak at Rainforest Alberta about career transition with an eye to inspiring others to take the leap into tech.
Malate himself is a member of the A100, a non-profit organization of business leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to help the next generation of tech entrepreneurs thrive in Alberta. “With the A100, your door is open,” said Malate. “If another entrepreneur needs time, you give it to them. That’s how we’re going to grow the tech industry in this city.”
QUICK LEARNERS WANTED
Because Athennian’s product is innovative and the industry in general changes so rapidly, the first item on the company’s employee wish list is the ability to learn.
“We need people who thrive on change. We’re not looking for people from specific education and professional backgrounds and there won’t be a ton of experienced people doing what you’re going to be doing.”
Athennian does tend to draw from the ranks of corporate paralegals, reformed lawyers, insurance professionals, public accountants and customer service experts. “We’re unified by an interest in learning, but otherwise we’re a very diverse team, which is a real strength.”
Malate tells the story of one of the earliest Athennian employees, who came to the company after a decade spent as a senior insurance underwriter. As he began collaborating with Athennian customers, he realized he needed to fill in some gaps in his knowledge. An ambitious learner, he took online paralegal courses when he joined, so he could develop Athennian’s tech around automating documents, creating the logic for automatic legal template generation.
Today, he leads an Athennian team of eight. As Malate points out, there’s no profession known as “document coding,'' and it’s not something you can study. Athennian is creating its own experts by finding them in adjacent jobs and training them to become what the company needs them to be. “If you thrive on learning and adaptability so you can meet the needs of customers,” said Malate, “this is the best job you’ll ever have.”
GOING GLOBAL
Athennian software is used by companies across North America, and those companies manage other companies located all over the globe, including in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Germany and South Africa. Athennian also has customers in about a dozen other countries and maintains over one million entities in its system.
The software is built to be adaptable across geographies and languages. “We looked for the commonalities in global ideas of corporation, systems of ownership (shares, stock, interest or units), and legal structure (for example, LLC or GmbH) so that users all over the world will find our software useful and easily customizable.” It is also designed to interface with a variety of government databases – right now, it works seamlessly with Canadian government sites. Coming soon: an interface with U.S. government sites and with Companies House in the United Kingdom.
All this is part of Athennian’s plans for global domination.
“We’re focused on North America today, but we absolutely are on the path to being a unicorn company and that means becoming a truly global platform. ”
“Increasing our European customer base and growing in Asia is critical to that,” said Malate.
CULTURE / PRODUCT
One of Athennian’s customers had seven offices across Canada, all doing corporate entity management in their own little silos. Athennian spent eight months implementing its systems and workflows, and now that company is totally unified, working together and collaborating as a team.
Malate sees that not only as the success of Athennian’s software but also of its culture.
“Our corporate culture is baked into our mission and vision. We believe in very collaborative digital work – that’s how we do business and we’re helping our ‘old-fashioned’ customers learn to do the same.”
Athennian has grown a lot, quickly, and most employees have never met in person. “Our culture is 100 per cent digital,” said Malate. “It’s how we celebrate successes and help each other.”
Apart from distributed work teams, other initiatives also work to bind a far-flung workforce into a supportive and diverse team that enriches the lives of all employees. Every week, for example, the company gathers for the Athennian Cribs Tour, where an employee gives everyone else a virtual tour of their house. “How often do you get to work – and socialize – with someone from Halifax, Vancouver and New Jersey all at the same time?”
The digital transformation that is now taking place in legal circles has been a long time coming, and Malate believes that it’s fueled in part by a generational and demographic changing of the guard.
”It’s legal’s time to start moving to digital, driven in part by the fact that there’s a new generation of decision makers moving into seats.” Judging from Athennian’s success alone, the law’s digital transformation is well underway. In April 2021, Athennian announced that it had officially achieved 20 per cent market share among the Top 30 Largest Law Firms in Canada.
WHAT’S NEXT
Athennian’s Toronto office will open in the summer of 2021; CEO Adrian Camara will be headquartered there, along with a seven person team. The company is growing exponentially – in 2020, there were 14 people on the team; this year, it’s more than 70.
Among them will be three interns hired from the University of Calgary School of Law as part of The Innovation Internship Training Program, which prepares law students to work in the tech-influenced workplace of their future.
Athennian has also begun to partner with tech colleges across the country, helping to transform the way in which paralegals are educated. Three Canadian colleges – including Calgary’s own SAIT – are currently teaching Athennian as part of the paralegal curriculum.
“Athennian is now being baked into the basic training process of professionals in our field,” said Malate. “That’s going to continue to grow, and it tells us only the best things about the future of this company. As I’ve said, we are 100 per cent on a path to becoming a unicorn business. We have outlined our path to how that happens and that’s what we’re executing.”
Are you ready to make moves in Calgary’s tech scene, working with forward-thinking companies like Athennian? Head to our Live Tech Love Life careers page and see what opportunities might be out there for you.