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About Us
AXIA : from the Greek meaning 'merit'
AxiaFunder's team have a combined 40+ years of financial experience and a combined 30+ years of litigation experience. AxiaFunder is focusing on the smaller end of the commercial litigation market (mainly in the UK and continental Europe) where we believe there is a significant shortage of capital and many clearly viable cases.
AxiaFunder is one of the first litigation investment companies in the UK and was awarded the Best Commercial Litigation Crowdfunding Platform in the 2019 Fintech Awards. AxiaFunder is a trading name of Champerty Limited (FRN 968527), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
What litigation funding services do we offer?
- Investment opportunities: We regularly review and list litigation investment opportunities that have the potential to generate high risk-adjusted returns to our investors. We mainly focus on commercial litigation including shareholder disputes, tax disputes, breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation claims, construction, insurance claims among others.
- Secondary Market: AxiaFunder has developed a Secondary Market providing an opportunity for litigation funding investors to purchase holdings in previously funded cases that are still ongoing. The Secondary Market offers flexibility to existing litigation case investors who might wish to generate liquidity for themselves while a case is still in progress.
- Single Case Simulator and Portfolio Return Simulator: The single case return simulator shows the expected value for litigation finance investors in a hypothetical SPV which takes partial assignment of a commercial claim. The portfolio return simulator helps litigation investors to quantify the potential benefits of varying levels of diversification. These are useful tools for investors wishing to illustrate potential investment outcomes.
- Funding claims: We offer both lawyers and claimants fast and flexible funding solutions for commercial legitimate cases, particularly those with clear legal merit and sound economics but that require funding. Typically, we help lawyers to finance commercial claims that require funding of up to £1 million. Our target turnaround is between 1-2 months from the initial enquiry to funding completion.
Our approach to litigation finance investing
AxiaFunder sources and carefully vets cases that we consider suitable for investment which then become available on the website. Registered litigation funding investors are granted direct access to these legal cases and can individually choose which to add to their investment portfolio.
When a case is funded, an up-front fee is paid by the claimant from the funds raised. The net funds raised are held in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and used to finance the litigation case.
If the claim succeeds (at trial or via settlement), the SPV receives a contractual return. This is usually a share of the damages received or a fixed return per annum. We deduct our success fee percentage from the gross return from the case and the remainder, net of any expenses and taxes, is payable to the case investors.
If a claimant loses, then the investors are likely to lose all, or a significant portion of their investment, depending on whether or not there is some principal-protection in place via insurance cover from After The Event (ATE) insurance provider.
For further information about our investment approach, go to https://www.axiafunder.com/our-investment-approach.
Our case evaluation team has over 3 decades of commercial litigation experience
Our team is a group of seasoned professionals from both financial services and commercial litigation.
Cormac Leech
CEO
For the past 7 years Cormac has focused on the alternative finance space. Here he was closely involved in raising over $2bn for direct lending funds as a founder and director of the Liberum Alternative Finance, and also incubating several fintech startups. He has also been a senior consultant to private equity groups including VPC after spending a number of years in strategy consulting at McKinsey. Cormac holds an MBA from INSEAD, a MSc in Computer Science from Oxford university, a First Class Honours degree (BSc) in Mathematical Physics from University College Dublin (where he graduated top of class).
Michael Lent
Case Origination & Assessment
Michael has practised as a solicitor since 1978, specialising in commercial litigation, having been a partner in firms such as Bond Pearce and Hammond Suddards, as they then were. His practice was divided between defending a wide range of professionals, general commercial litigation and advising insurers on policy drafting and policy disputes. In July 2008, he joined Temple Legal Protection, to develop their commercial litigation ATE underwriting insurance division. He subsequently left this role in order to set up his own ATE underwriting agency, Lakehouse Risk Services Limited, which commenced operations in June 2016, to insure commercial litigation in the UK and Ireland.
Sophie Xuemei Liu
COO
Sophie was previously the co-founder and CMO of Xanadu, an internet startup focusing on Chinese outbound travel, where she worked with the IT team in developing the Company’s travel aggregator website. In this role, Sophie was also responsible for all online/offline marketing, business development and operations for the group of +80 employees. Her expertise spans offline/online marketing, personnel management and business operations. Sophie previously spent a number of years working for L'Oreal International where she gained in-depth international strategic marketing and product development experience at L’Oreal International. Sophie holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Diana Sweeney
Investment Analyst
Diana has previously completed internships at ING and British Business Bank supporting the organisation’s strategy in reducing regional imbalances in SME access to finance. Diana holds a MA in Comparative Business Economics from University College London and a First Class Honours degree (BA) in Business Economics from University of Greenwich. She has volunteered for a year at XLP, a mentoring project working with young people in disadvantaged communities in London. Diana is also fluent in both Russian and Lithuanian.
Jonathan Gray
Investment Analyst
Jonathan joined AxiaFunder from OakNorth Bank, specialists in SME lending. He initially joined in the Transaction Execution Team before moving to the Speciality Finance desk, where he worked on real estate, leveraged finance and fund finance facilities. Prior to this, Jonathan completed internships in investment management, banking and fin-tech public relations. Jonathan holds a Law Degree through the conversion offered by BPP University and a First-Class Honours degree (MA) in History from the University of Edinburgh.
Anastasia Yurevich
Investment Analyst
Anastasia has prior experience working as a financial analyst at Amazon and has also been part of a sales team in a technical startup specialising in alternative investments. She holds a distinction in MSc Computing from Imperial College London and a First Class Honours degree in BSc Mathematics with Management and Finance from King’s College London. Outside of work, Anastasia is supporting her family with investment decisions and actively explores exotic countries around the world.
Jesper Leggatt
Investment Analyst
Jesper graduated from the University of Manchester in 2024 with First-Class Honours in Law. Having recently joined the team, Jesper is involved in all aspects of the business. Outside of his work at AxiaFunder, he enjoys playing tennis and other sports, outdoor-adventuring and cooking.
Anthony Berry
Senior Case Assessor
Anthony graduated in Law at The University of the West of England. He has over 20 years experience working in Legal services and Insurance Industries, where he worked for market leading companies in both business development and claims management. Outside of work, Anthony is kept busy with his 3 children. He enjoys watching all types of sport, and playing golf.
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