By Sara Merken (Reuters) -Investors in recent weeks have injected more than $750 million in new cash into startups that make artificial intelligence products for lawyers, betting on a growing marketplace competing for legal industry customers. GC AI, which makes AI tools for in-house corporate legal teams for tasks like drafting documents, research and analyzing […]
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AI boom fuels fresh wave of legal tech investments
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By Sara Merken
(Reuters) -Investors in recent weeks have injected more than $750 million in new cash into startups that make artificial intelligence products for lawyers, betting on a growing marketplace competing for legal industry customers.
GC AI, which makes AI tools for in-house corporate legal teams for tasks like drafting documents, research and analyzing contracts, said on Wednesday it has raised $60 million in a funding round led by Scale Venture Partners and Northzone, valuing the San Francisco-based company at $555 million.
The two-year-old startup’s platform can make in-house lawyers more efficient and reduce spending on outside counsel, said Cecilia Ziniti, GC AI’s co-founder and CEO. The company said its customers include News Corp, which also participated as an investor in the funding round, and Nextdoor, Skims and Zscaler.
Other investors in the new funding round include Sound Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, SilverCircle, The Council and Guillermo Rauch, the CEO of Vercel.
Investments in legal tech companies like GC AI have been mounting ever since the generative AI boom took hold in 2023. On Monday, Vancouver-based Clio raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation and completed its $1 billion acquisition of vLex, calling it a move towards becoming “an AI-first company.”
Sweden-based Legora, which markets an “AI workspace” for lawyers, raised $150 million at a $1.8 billion valuation late last month. Zurich-based DeepJudge, which says it helps legal teams with AI-powered search, raised $41.2 million last week at a $300 million valuation.
Other legal tech companies to raise money since September include SpellBook’s $50 million fundraise, EvenUp’s $150 million raise at a $2 billion valuation and Eve’s $130 million raise at a $1 billion valuation.
GC AI’s Ziniti, a former general counsel at AI software developer platform Replit, said the company will use the latest cash infusion to hire more engineers, reach more customers and corporate departments, and eventually expand to serve companies without their own legal teams.
(Reporting by Sara Merken)