Artificial Lawyer writes……Yesterday, this site shared the news that Harvey has raised $300m at a $3 billion valuation. REV, the investment arm of RELX – the parent of legal tech-focused LexisNexis – was also an investor in this rival company. But why? Here is what LexisNexis says.
First, some context, LexisNexis and the wider RELX business have invested millions of dollars into the company’s new legal AI capabilities. It has bought startups such as Henchman to help with this. And it has launched a range of new genAI-backed products that are either wholly new, or take existing products to a new level.
It’s also locked in a fierce battle with long-standing rival Thomson Reuters, which is also rolling out a range of genAI products for lawyers, and has also invested a lot – including buying Casetext.
In this environment, one would not normally expect one’s boss and overall owner, i.e. in LexisNexis’ case, RELX, to invest in a direct competitor via its REV arm. Harvey is not a legal publishing giant, but its range of AI tools for drafting, contract review, and search, are in direct competition with similar tools now sold by LexisNexis.
Understandably, Artificial Lawyer asked the company what this was all about. Here is their reply.
‘REV, the venture capital arm of RELX which owns LexisNexis Legal & Professional, was introduced to the Harvey team by LexisNexis and worked in coordination with LexisNexis in its investment in Harvey’s Series D financing.
As a core part of our customer-centric innovation, LexisNexis continuously invests in leading AI tools and technologies to enhance customer productivity, deliver next-level legal work, and to help customers drive even more value for their organizations.
REV’s investment in Harvey does not impact product development plans for LexisNexis.
Lexis+ AI is among the fastest-growing solution ever launched by the company and our focus remains on expanding use cases supported by our recently launched Protégé personalized AI assistant.
at which point i got bored
Read on here
