Copenhagen-based legal technology startup SmallClaims has raised €2 million, approximately DKK 15 million, in a Seed round led by Vendep Capital, a Finnish venture capital firm focused on early-stage B2B software across the Nordics and Baltics. The company plans to use the capital to advance its artificial intelligence platform, expand into additional European markets, and grow its team in Copenhagen. Founded in 2021 by attorney Christian Olson, SmallClaims develops AI agents that automate the full lifecycle of small claims litigation.
A Systemic Market Problem
SmallClaims is addressing a substantial inefficiency in European civil justice. More than €930 billion in claims are written off annually in the European Union because they are too expensive to recover through the courts. Data from the company indicates that 47% of all B2B invoices in Western Europe are paid late, while around 6% end up as losses, and one in four bankruptcies in the EU is linked to late payment.
Automating the Legal Workflow
The platform uses specialized AI agents to manage legal assessment, settlement, filing, judgment, and enforcement. This automation has reduced manual case handling from more than 15 hours to roughly 1.5 hours per case, and the company aims for humans to validate less than 5% of outputs within two years. Its legal team currently performs quality assurance of the agents' work and appears in court if a case remains unresolved before a hearing.
Traction and Growth
SmallClaims serves more than 500 customers, including debt collection agencies, law firms, and businesses with large volumes of outstanding invoices. The company processed more than 3,200 cases in 2025, representing case intake growth of over 370% since 2023. It reports a win rate above 90%, expects to triple revenue in 2026, and is targeting annual revenue of more than €100 million in the coming years.
European Digital Justice Opportunity
SmallClaims is positioned within the European Small Claims Procedure, which covers cross-border claims of up to €5,000 in 26 member states. The EU's Digitalisation Regulation and the Commission's DigitalJustice@2030 strategy are pushing cross-border litigation toward fully digital processes, including electronic filing, digital service of documents, and video hearings. The company operates on a no cure, no pay model, with its fee carried by the debtor through statutory legal costs and supplemented by subscriptions and integrations with finance and invoicing systems.
Founder and Investor Perspective
Christian Olson, founder and chief executive officer, previously served as General Counsel of Too Good To Go and as an attorney at Løje IP. He believes the legal system was designed for an era when a lawyer handled every case, which makes sense for a €1 million dispute but not for a DKK 15,000 invoice. Vendep Capital Partner Jupe Arala highlighted Olson's combined litigation and in-house legal experience, paired with an AI-first platform, as a rare advantage.
SmallClaims is positioning itself to make small claims litigation economically viable for companies across Europe, and the seed round provides capital to validate that model country by country. The company's early traction, high win rate, and automation gains suggest a meaningful shift in how low-value legal claims can be pursued at scale. As European courts continue their digital transformation, SmallClaims aims to become a central infrastructure layer for automated civil recovery.