British adeus secures £500,000 Innovate UK grant for electronic wills

London-based digital wills platform adeus has received a £500,000 Innovate UK Smart Grant to advance technology supporting the upcoming legal shift toward electronic wills in England and Wales.

adeus, a London-based digital-first wills and legacy planning startup, has been awarded a £500,000 Smart Grant from Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency. The grant will fund the development of proprietary technology designed to support the legalisation and practical rollout of electronic wills across England and Wales.

The funding announcement comes just days after the Law Commission published its long-anticipated Modernising Wills Law report on May 16, 2025. Among other reforms, the report proposes legal changes that would allow for electronic wills, a major shift from the current requirements under the Wills Act 1837, which mandate handwritten signatures and paper documents.

Founded in 2024 by entrepreneurs Nick Adams and Mark Hedley under the umbrella of Mankind Technologies Ltd, adeus was launched to modernise the legacy planning process through digital innovation. Its core offering includes tools to help individuals create and manage wills online, securely store personal documents, and navigate end-of-life planning with clarity and security.

“Securing the Innovate UK Smart Grant is a major milestone for adeus and a strong endorsement of our vision,” said co-founder Nick Adams. “We believe the move to electronic wills is one of the most significant legal changes in a generation, and adeus is building the technology infrastructure to make it a reality.”

While digital tools have transformed many aspects of legal and financial services, will-writing in the UK has remained rooted in 19th-century legal frameworks. With the Law Commission now backing the shift to digital formats, startups like adeus are cropping up.

The move to electronic wills is expected to improve accessibility and reduce errors in the will-writing processes, issues that have historically led to invalid or contested documents. It also aligns with broader government and industry efforts to digitise legal and civic procedures.

adeus’s platform is already live in over 15 countries, although its wills functionality is currently limited to England and Wales. The company’s broader ambition is to become a global provider of digital legacy planning tools, an emerging segment within the wider legaltech and deathtech markets.

The legaltech market in the UK and Europe is growing steadily, driven by demand for more accessible, cost-effective, and user-friendly legal services. According to a 2024 report by Tech Nation, legaltech investment in the UK surpassed £300 million last year, with wills and estate planning emerging as one of the key growth verticals.

adeus joins a small but growing cohort of startups including Farewill, FreeWill, and Tomorrow that are attempting to make legacy planning more digitally native. The company differentiates itself with an emphasis on legal compliance, document security, and international scalability.

As legal reform around digital wills advances, adeus’s early investment in infrastructure development could offer a first-mover advantage. The Smart Grant funding will enable the startup to build out its technical architecture and ensure regulatory alignment ahead of any formal legislative change.