Edenreach Unveils AI Tool to Drive Impact Capital into Justice

Litigation finance has long struggled with perceptions of opacity and inaccessibility. Now, Edenreach, a female-founded impact advisory and justice fintech led by Kayee Cheung and Melina Gisler, is setting out to reframe the industry as a vehicle for measurable social impact. The company’s mission is ambitious: to build a structured pathway that connects ethical investors to justice-focused legal assets through a blend of technology, transparency, and capital innovation.

This month, Edenreach launched the first iteration of its AI-powered platform, which evaluates legal cases against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and produces ESG-aligned impact reporting — a tool Cheung and Gisler believe could catalyze the flow of “impact capital” into justice.

“We asked a simple question,” said Cheung, the firm’s co-founder and CEO. “What if legal investments could systematically do more than generate returns? What if they could drive meaningful change too? We’re creating a powerful, purpose-driven advocacy tool that blends financial returns with societal impact to redefine what’s possible in the pursuit of justice.”

A new lens on access to justice

Edenreach is among the few female-founded firms in the global justice finance space, and both founders say their different backgrounds shaped the venture’s ethos.

“Despite coming from different professional paths, Melina and I both thrive on finding new ways to look at complex systems,” Cheung said. “We’re transforming the global justice gap — where five billion people have unmet legal needs — into a $140 billion-plus opportunity.”

Gisler, who brings both legal and product development experience, described the company’s mission as building “tech-enabled bridges between capital and justice.” “Having worked within the justice system, I’ve seen how funding shortfalls can shut people out entirely — particularly those from vulnerable or underrepresented communities,” she said. “By treating litigation funding not just as a financial mechanism but as a product design challenge, we can make access to justice more scalable, transparent, and inclusive.”

The firm’s approach is also grounded in research, including a forthcoming collaboration with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, exploring how smart technology can improve access to justice for underserved communities.

Redefining impact and ESG in legal finance

While many funders now reference ESG, Edenreach positions itself at the intersection of impact investing and justice finance — two markets that rarely converge.

“Impact litigation finance remains niche and dominated by traditional players that prioritize financial returns,” Cheung said. “As a result, it’s not on the radar for many ethical capital providers such as donor-advised funds or foundations. What’s missing is a trusted framework that acts as the connecting bridge — we’re building that bridge.”

Edenreach’s proprietary assurance system aims to certify, monitor, and report on justice-aligned investments, creating the transparency impact investors demand. The firm has already won an Innovate UK grant to study the role of smart technology in bridging access-to-justice gaps and was recently selected for the Global Incubator Programme run by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Legal Innovation Zone.

Innovating capital structures

Beyond technology, Edenreach is developing new financial models to expand investor participation. Its flagship structure — a fund-of-funds with bond-style returns — targets the underfunded “micro-case” segment of the UK market, including housing disrepair, debt, and consumer protection claims.

“Our research found that while class actions dominate collective redress, a whole spectrum of smaller claims remains severely underfunded,” Cheung said. “With an impact investor lens, these cases can deliver both financial returns and social outcomes. Many resolve within months, creating the potential for steady, bond-like income when aggregated.”

The model, she added, reframes the investor conversation: “Instead of asking them to try something entirely new, we ask — why not diversify your bond strategy into legal assets?”

Building ethical intelligence with AI

The firm’s new AI-enabled case platform is designed to assess and match cases with ethically aligned investors. “We’re building a bridge so that catalytic capital can go towards funding ethically aligned cases,” Gisler explained. “Our platform analyses and assesses cases against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This allows investors — from donor-advised funds to philanthropic vehicles — to finance cases that align with their impact goals.”

Each case receives a sustainability assessment and ESG impact report, which helps investors evaluate opportunities using standardized metrics. “Impact reporting is a critical component of the structured pathway into justice finance,” Gisler said. “It gives investors the same transparency and accountability they expect in other asset classes.”

A universal language for justice finance

The founders view the SDGs as a common language for aligning ethical capital with legal impact. “The light-bulb moment for us was realizing that justice finance needed a universal impact language,” said Cheung. “The capital already exists — what was missing was a framework to activate it with clarity and trust.”

By mapping legal claims against the SDGs, Edenreach provides investors with a clear picture of how each case contributes to specific global objectives. “We’re creating a new asset class that mobilizes ethical, impact-aligned capital into the legal system,” Cheung said. “It transforms justice from an underfunded need into a structured, investable opportunity.”

Mainstreaming justice finance

Looking ahead, Edenreach aims to position justice finance within the $3.3 trillion impact investment market and the $1 trillion legal services industry. Cheung estimates a serviceable available market of roughly $144 billion, with Edenreach targeting a quarter of that in the next five years.

“We see a future where every act of funding is a vision for justice,” she said. “Ethical capital providers need structured deployment at the same time as the access-to-justice gap grows every day. Edenreach unifies capital, compliance, and resolution in one system.”

Partnerships, Gisler added, will be central to scaling. “We’re building a network of allies and collaborators who understand the critical role justice finance can play in improving access to justice globally,” she said.

For both founders, the goal is nothing short of redefining the relationship between capital and justice. “Investments can do more than generate returns,” Cheung said. “They can drive meaningful change.”