Introduction
Leguar Capital OÜ is an Estonian investment company focused on investing in real estate projects and lending to various startups.
The CEO of Leguar Capital is a very charismatic and well-known investor Jaak Roosaare. He is the author of many popular investment books and thus has earned the trust of many people who want to invest their money through his company.
All investment rounds are project-based, which means that for each round many contracts have to be signed between different investors and Leguar. The contract preparation part is handled by assistant Madli - she prepares, sends for signing and arranges contracts depending on their status. The documents are always signed by Jaak.
The problem
Prior to using Agrello, the contract preparation process was very time-consuming and required Madli to perform various manual steps during the contract preparation process.
Madli used Microsoft Word to create new documents. She created a new template for each round, then inserted the investors' data into the documents, saved them, and forwarded them to the investors via e-mail. Then Madli had to wait for investors to digitally sign the documents and send them back to her.
After Madli received a certain number of documents, Jaak booked an appointment on his calendar to sign them on Digidoc using Mobile-ID, Smart-ID, or ID-card. Since there can be many documents in an investment round, this was a time-consuming task.
After Jaak signs the documents, Madli sends a copy to the investors and this concludes the contracting part of an investment round.
The solution
After listening to their process description, it was immediately clear to us that there were several problem areas for which Agrello could provide a solution.
So we were happy to carry out a pilot project with Leguar and help them save valuable time by eliminating the need for manual work.
The pilot project lasted for 5 months, included 6 investment rounds and the creation of 375 documents.
Agrello has made conducting and gathering signatures for a large portion of documents in a short period so much easier, saving me a lot of time and making the process more convenient for all the parties.
Regarding Agrello’s hard-working and supportive team, I would recommend their platform for both smaller and larger companies.
Madli
Leguar Capital OÜ
Document creation
Let us start with the document creation part. The basis of the contract for investment rounds is usually the same, only some terms and the information about the investor has to be changed each time. So this case is perfect for creating a reusable template on Agrello.
Since Madli was already working with Microsoft Word, we encouraged her to try the “Fill and Sign” feature. All she had to do was use curly brackets around areas where she wanted to get fillable fields. After uploading the document to Agrello, the fields are automatically recognised and the template can be reused.
For each round, Madli created a new template on Agrello and filled in the investor data without leaving our platform.
During the pilot, Agrello also introduced Zapier integrations, which has made document creation even faster. Madli uses the integration between Agrello and Google Sheets to automatically create documents. According to her words, setting up Zapier took some time, but after the first test round everything works smoothly. She has concluded two rounds using the Google Sheets and Agrello zap and the last round was very fast and without any issues.
Automating document creation on Agrello eliminated the need to create and save Microsoft Word documents individually, hence saving time for Madli.
Sending the document for signing
Another time-consuming part for Madli was emailing documents back and forth to collect signatures. With Agrello, Madli no longer needs to attach the right files to the right emails. The documents can be sent to investors and Jaak directly from the Agrello platform. As a rule, she remains the viewer of each document herself.
The fact that everything is done in one environment and she doesn’t have to switch between different tools is definitely more convenient.
Signing the documents
There can be hundreds of documents within one investment round and the main problem for Jaak was that it takes too much time to get all these documents signed - he usually has to book a special time on his calendar to complete his task. On Agrello all the documents are located conveniently in the same environment and he can choose the method for signing - Agrello signature, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID. His preferred method of signing is the Agrello signature, since it is very easy, doesn’t require entering the PIN2 every time and saves him a lot of time.
Another problem they have encountered so far is that the learning curve with other digital signature platforms has been too high, leaving many investors stuck and needing help signing the document. The experience with Agrello so far shows that it is a very easy-to-use tool.
One of Leguar's requirements from the beginning was that there should be a way to sign with local Estonian eID tools. Here at Agrello, we had thought about integrating Mobile-ID and Smart-ID before, as it would enable the provision of qualified electronic signatures on the Agrello platform, but their request gave us a direct incentive to do it now. Mobile-ID and Smart-ID are available and widely used in the Baltic States.
After the document is signed by both parties, investors can download their copy of the document from Agrello. Madli no longer needs to email them the copy.
Keeping an eye on the process
As mentioned earlier, Madli typically kept track of the process by manually updating the status of the document in an Excel spreadsheet.
Agrello's dashboard is designed to give you an overview of the signing status throughout the document's lifecycle - after logging in you immediately see the documents arranged in tabs. Agrello also sends email notifications to the document owner when the document has been accepted and signed.
Madli still uses Excel for various purposes related to the investment round, but Agrello gives her confidence in terms of notifying her when the document has been received and signed.
Storing signed documents
Another important item Madli had to take care of was sorting and saving the documents. Since Agrello provides a secure cloud solution to store all documents, they no longer need to be duplicated.
Investors have access to the documents they signed and both Madli and Jaak have access to all documents in a shared space.