Asia, a region known for some of the world's most innovative technology companies and tech-savvy populations, has been surprisingly slow to adopt legal technology. But several Asian legal markets — Singapore, India, Japan and even Mongolia — started to make headway in 2019.

Last June, Singapore, the legaltech hub of Asia, launched the region's first major legaltech-focused startup accelerator. Called Global Legal Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship (GLIDE), the accelerator is the latest effort by the Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP), a pilot program created in 2018 by the Singapore Academy of Law, a government body, to promote legaltech.  

GLIDE selected seven startups from around the world for its inaugural cohort: LegalFAB and LexKnights in Singapore, BriefBox and Checkbox in Sydney, Remedium in Perth, Anduin in San Francisco and Legal Navigator in Dubai. That group graduated from the program with a Demo Day on Jan. 16, when startups demonstrated their companies to prospective investors.