SparkLabs Global Ventures Closes First Investments In LawPal and Memebox, Adds Brian Behlendorf And Jonathan Teo As Advisors

Global seed-stage fund SparkLabs Global Ventures, which launched in October, has closed the first two investments. The $30 million fund seeks to identify and support promising startups around the world, with a focus on emerging marketplaces. It invested $400,000 in legal services platform LawPal, and $500,000 in Memebox, South Korea’s first beauty product subscription service. The firm also announced that it has added Brian Behlendorf, co-founder of the Apache Project, and General Catalyst managing director Jonathan Teo as advisors.

LawPal wants to make it easier for attorneys and clients to work together by providing a transaction platform with tools to collaborate, track the progress of each project and securely store and sign documents. The company is also developing a directory of lawyers who serve startups. Memebox launched last year in Seoul as South Korea’s first beauty subscription e-commerce company and has now expanded overseas so customers in the U.S. can purchase best-selling Korean products. The startup was a member of the first group to take part in SparkLabs’ Korean accelerator program.

New advisor Behlendorf is a managing director at Mithril Capital Management, while Teo, is a managing director at General Catalyst Partners, where his investments include Snapchat and Chloe + Isabel. Before joining General Catalyst, Teo was a principal at Benchmark Capital, where he originated the firm’s investments in Twitter and Instagram.

In a statement, SparkLabs Global Ventures’ co-founder and general partner Frank Meehan said “It’s really a privilege to have Brian and Jonathan as advisors not only because of their incredible accomplishments, but how they reflect the vision of our fund. Brian serving as CTO of the World Economic Forum, being co-creator of Apache Server Software that the majority of the world’s websites run on, and a pioneer in the open source movement matches our global footprint and desire to help entrepreneurs all over the world. Same with Jonathan and his ability to identify billion dollar companies (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat), so early in their lifecycles.”