Ambrogi writes…..
For the first time last year, annual investment in legal technology companies reached $1 billion. This year, legal tech investments have already surpassed that, totaling at least $1.2 billion to date — a record for annual investment in legal technology, and with three months still to go before year end.
I surveyed investments in legal technology this year and found a total of $1,190,215,968 invested to date. The actual number is even higher, because two significant investments announced just this month — in LexFox, a German company that provides legal portals for consumers, and in Axiom, one of the world’s largest alternative legal services providers — did not disclose their amounts.
The year’s biggest deal to date happened just two weeks ago, with news that two major growth equity companies had invested a whopping $250 million in law practice management company Clio. The second biggest deal came just days into 2019, when enterprise-workflow company Onit announced a $200 million investment.
Of the 41 companies listed below, at least 12 are focused on some aspect of contracts and contracting – including contract management, contract review and contract automation. These include four of the top six – Onit, Icertis, ContractPodAI and Fadada.
Three notes about this data:
- Where investment amounts were reported in non-U.S. currencies, I have converted the amounts to U.S. dollars as of the date of this post, not as of the date of the announcements.
- The numbers are based on publicly reported investments, which may not reveal the full picture. For example, I have listed a $40 million investment in Litera based on the amount reported by the investor, HgCapital Trust plc. However, that investment came from a specific fund as part of Hg’s acquisition of Litera, and the total acquisition price, while not disclosed, is said to have been more than $400 million.
- This chart does not include mergers and acquisitions.
Here are the year’s legal tech investments to date.
Legal Tech Investments 2019 |
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| Company | Amount | Country | Description | Date | Type |
| Clio | $250,000,000 | Canada | Law practice management | 9/4/2019 | Series D |
| Onit | $200,000,000 | U.S. | Legal and contract management and automation | 1/8/2019 | Private Equity |
| Icertis | $115,000,000 | U.S. | Cloud-based contract lifecycle management | 7/17/2019 | Series E |
| DISCO | $83,000,000 | U.S. | E-discovery | 1/24/2019 | Series E |
| ContractPodAI | $55,000,000 | U.K. | AI contract management | 7/18/2019 | Series B |
| Fadada | $55,000,000 | China | Electronic signatures and contract management | 3/6/2019 | Series C |
| Litify | $50,000,000 | U.S. | Law practice management | 6/6/2019 | Series A |
| Tessian | $42,000,000 | U.K. | Email security | 1/16/2019 | Venture |
| Litera Microsystems | $40,000,000 | U.S. | Document technology | 5/7/2019 | Private equity |
| Notarize | $36,937,968 | U.S. | Online notary public service | 8/27/2019 | Series B |
| Elevate | $25,000,000 | U.S. | Alternative legal services provider | 6/17/2019 | Venture |
| Ironclad | $23,000,000 | U.S. | Contract management for legal departments | 1/30/2019 | Series B |
| Verbit | $23,000,000 | U.S. | AI-driven transcription and captioning | 1/29/2019 | Series A |
| Nivaura | $20,000,000 | U.K. | Issuance of financial instruments | 2/27/2019 | Seed |
| Seal | $15,000,000 | U.S. | Contract discovery and management | 3/28/2019 | Corporate |
| 164 | $15,000,000 | China | Legal service platform | 5/6/2019 | Seed |
| Helpcheck | $12,500,000 | Germany | Legal help for consumers | 1/16/2019 | Series A |
| Legalstart.fr | $11,300,000 | France | Create and manage legal documents | 3/12/2019 | Venture |
| Luminance | $10,000,000 | U.K. | AI document analysis and review | 2/7/2019 | Series B |
| ayfie | $10,000,000 | Norway | Search and text analytics | 8/15/2019 | Venture |
| Farewill | $9,400,000 | U.K. | Online will creation | 1/21/2019 | Venture |
| Peppermint Technology | $9,000,000 | U.K. | Law practice management | 1/25/2019 | Corporate |
| Brightflag | $8,000,000 | Ireland | Manage outside counsel costs | 4/5/2019 | Series A |
| Filevine | $8,300,000 | U.S. | Law practice management | 1/29/2019 | Series A |
| Boundless | $7,800,000 | U.S. | Immigration platform | 3/21/2019 | Series A |
| Signaturit | $7,800,000 | Spain | Electronic signatures and document management | 2/19/2019 | Series A |
| Clause | $5,500,000 | U.S. | Smart contracts application | 6/27/2019 | Series A |
| LinkSquares | $4,800,000 | U.S. | AI-powered contract management | 3/7/2019 | Seed |
| Plexus | $4,650,000 | Australia | Legal automation for in-house counsel | 5/10/2019 | Series A |
| DoNotPay | $4,600,000 | U.K. | Legal apps for consumers | 7/3/2019 | Seed |
| Evisort | $4,500,000 | U.S. | AI-powered contract management | 2/12/2019 | Seed |
| Lexion | $4,200,000 | U.S. | AI contract management | 7/19/2019 | Seed |
| SeedLegals | $4,000,000 | U.K. | Platform to manage seed-funding rounds in U.K. | 5/28/2019 | Series A |
| Clairvolex | $3,500,000 | U.S. | IP asset management | 6/26/2019 | Series B |
| DocJuris | $2,500,000 | U.S. | Contract review | 1/15/2019 | Seed |
| Legal OS | $2,200,000 | Germany | Library of legal content | 6/19/2019 | Seed |
| Genie AI | $2,500,000 | U.K. | Automatic legal contract drafting | 7/23/2019 | Seed |
| Trellis | $2,000,000 | U.S. | Litigation analytics | 3/27/2019 | Seed |
| Orbital Witness | $1,540,000 | U.K. | Real estate due diligence | 5/16/2019 | Seed |
| Autto | $1,000,000 | U.K. | Legal workflow automation | 8/22/2019 | Seed |
| Josef | $688,000 | Australia | Platform for building legal chatbots | 5/6/2019 | Seed |
| TOTAL | $1,150,215,968 | ||||
In addition to these, there have been other investments in which the amount has not been disclosed. Among these:
- LexFox, a German company that provides legal portals for consumers, announced Sept. 3 that it had raised a “seven-digit round” of financing led by Earlybird and Target Global, but it did not disclose the amount.
- Axiom, one of the world’s largest alternative legal services providers, announced on Sept. 5 that it has entered into an agreement with private equity firm Permira by which a company backed by Permira funds will take a significant investment in Axiom.
