While the sector has long been booming as lawyers seek out tools to outsource the more tedious parts of their job — including accounting, annotating documents, and drafting contracts — investments in the space slowed in 2023 to a six-year low as part of a broader pullback of VC funding amid economic insecurity, according to Crunchbase data.
While funding remains muted compared to record highs in 2021 and 2022, some legal tech startups are succeeding in raising new funding rounds even as their startup peers in other industries struggle — provided they showcase how generative AI is a core part of their business offering.
Robin AI, which uses generative AI to help lawyers draft and negotiate contracts; Superlegal, which has built AI that's actually licensed to practice law; and Definely, a London-based startup that lends its AI tools to contract drafting and review, have all raised fresh VC funding in recent months.
Business Insider has identified 15 legal tech startups that have raised the most funding from investors, via an analysis of PitchBook data.
Some companies on our list are incumbents, like Clio, Rocket Lawyer, and Everlaw, which were founded in 2008, 2006, and 2010, respectively.
Other startups on the list were founded within the last few years and have quickly become VC darlings, including Harvey, which offers a suite of generative AI legal products and raised a $100 million Series C funding round in July.
While the startups on Business Insider's list are different in terms of what types of lawyers they serve and what tasks they help complete, every company is now using AI to further its business goals and win customers.
We organized our list based on the total amount of VC funding each startup has received.
Clio
Clio founder and CEO Jack Newton
Clio
Year founded: 2008
HQ: Barnaby, Canada
Most recent funding round: $900 million Series F funding round in July 2024
Total fundraising: $1.2 billion, according to the company
Notable Investors: OMERS Growth Equity, New Enterprise Associates, BlackRock, CapitalG
How it's using AI: Clio, which provides cloud-based law firm management software, launched an AI-powered partner last year to summarize documents and generate bills.
Icertis
Samir Bodas is CEO of Icertis.
Icertis
Year founded: 2009
HQ: Bellevue, Washington
Most recent funding round: $80 million Series F in March 2021
Total fundraising: $481.5 million, according to PitchBook
Notable Investors: B Capital Group, Ignition Partners, Greycroft
How it's using AI: Icertis built a contract management program and offers various AI tools for users to pull and analyze data.
Ironclad
Ironclad co-founders Jason Boehmig (CEO) and Cai GoGwilt (chief architect)
Ironclad
Year founded: 2014
HQ: San Francisco
Most recent funding round: $150 million Series E funding round in January 2022
Total VC fundraising: $333 million, according to the company
Notable Investors: Sequoia, Accel, Franklin Templeton, BOND, Emergence Capital
How it's using AI: Ironclad provides AI-powered contract review and offers editing as well as data analysis and visualizations.
Rocket Lawyer
Rocket Lawyer
Year founded: 2006
HQ: San Francisco
Most recent funding round: $223 million Series E in April 2021
Total VC fundraising: $328 million, according to PitchBook
Notable Investors: GV, Wasabi Ventures, LexisNexis Group
How it's using AI: Rocket Lawyer provides individuals, families, and small businesses with tools to incorporate a business, create estate plans, and review legal documents. The company uses conversational AI to help individuals navigate legal filings and keep costs down.
Everlaw
CEO and founder AJ Shankar
Everlaw
Year founded: 2010
HQ: Oakland, California
Most recent funding round: $202 million Series D in November 2021
Total VC fundraising: $298.6, according to the company
How it's using AI: Everlaw's cloud-based e-discovery platform helps legal teams collaborate and discover information, and it offers an AI assistant that combs through data and builds legal arguments.
How it's using AI: ContractPodAI uses AI for contract management and offers a generative AI tool called Leah to automate some legal projects and tasks.
LinkSquares
LinkSquares CEO and Founder Vishal Sunak
LinkSquares
Year founded: 2015
HQ: Boston
Most recent funding round: $100M Series C in April 2022
Total VC fundraising: $161 million, according to the company
How it's using AI: LinkSquares brings AI to in-house legal teams on order to search and analyze contracts; assist with negotiations, and manage a company's entire legal department.
Hebbia
Hebbia founder George Sivulka
Hebbia
Year founded: 2020
HQ: New York
Most recent funding round: $130 million Series B in July 2024
Total VC fundraising: $160 million, according to the company
Notable Investors: Peter Thiel, a16z, Google Ventures, Index Ventures
How it's using AI: Hebbia deploys AI agents that can complete due diligence, review regulatory filings, negotiate M&A deals, and other legal tasks, along with tools for finance, real estate, and other industries.
Evisort
Evisort
Year founded: 2016
HQ: San Francisco
Most recent funding round: $100 million Series C in May 2022
Total VC fundraising: $154 million, according to PitchBook
Notable Investors: Amity Ventures, G Ventures, TCV
How it's using AI: Evisort built the first large language model (LLM) specifically for contracts and offers an AI-powered contract management program.
LegalOn Technologies
LegalOn US CEO, Daniel Lewis and Group CEO, Nozomu Tsunoda
LegalOn
Year founded: 2017
HQ: Tokyo and San Francisco
Most recent funding round: $101 million Series D funding round in June 2022
Total VC fundraising: $132 million, according to the company
Notable Investors: Softbank Vision Fund 2, Sequoia China, Goldman Sachs
How it's using AI: LegalOn uses AI to review and negotiate contracts.
Steno
Steno co-founders Greg Hong, Dylan Ruga, and Dan Anderson
Steno
Year founded: 2018
HQ: Los Angeles
Most recent funding round: $15 million Series B in May 2023
Total VC fundraising: $114 million, according to the company
Notable Investors: First Round Capital, The Legal Tech Fund, Clio, Rivonia Road Capital, Trinity Capital
How it's using AI: Steno, which offers tech for court reporting and litigation support, has an AI-powered transcription service that can analyze testimony and provide insights and summaries.
Proof
Eric Voogt, Proof's Founder and CEO
Proof Technology
Year founded: 2015
HQ: Boston
Most recent funding round: $30 million Series B in February 2024
Total VC fundraising: $42 million, according to PitchBook
Notable Investors: Clio, Forward VC, The Legal Tech Fund
How it's using AI: Proof digitizes the process of serving legal documents, and the startup uses AI to collect data and manage informations about lawsuits and court cases.
