Former Skyscanner chief raises $25m for Edinburgh start-up
Ross McNairn, a former head of product at Edinburgh-based Skyscanner, has secured the backing from Index Ventures to scale Wordsmith AI, an artificial intelligence tool that is rapidly gaining traction within in-house legal departments.
The Edinburgh-based company, which counts Trustpilot, Deliveroo, Remote.com, Multiverse, and Docplanner among its growing customer base, is planning to open offices in London and New York later this year.
Its growth comes as AI technology is transforming processes across the legal sector.
Mr McNairn, chief executive and co-founder of Wordsmith, said: 'For the first time, AI infrastructure can be embedded across companies, with fleets of agents that you can train to support every corporate function - cutting deal cycles, answering queries, and processing complex workflows. Our Legal Enablement Platform is like air traffic control for GCs and in-house teams, helping them guide teams to the right decisions faster.'
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Mr McNairn launched Wordsmith after being involved in the development of three unicorns – companies that achieve a valuation of $1 billion. As well as Skyscanner, which was sold by founders, including chief executive Gareth Williams, to Ctrip of China for £1.4bn in 2016, Mr McNair helped to scale TravelPerk and letgo to that status.
It is understood that Wordsmith achieved a valuation of $100m faster than any other Scottish start-up, underlining the potential of the Scottish technology sector.
Mr McNairn, a lawyer turned engineer who has previously secured backing for Wordsmith from Scottish Enterprise, added: 'While we are the fastest-ever Scottish start-up to reach a valuation of over $100m, what's more important is that we're scaling a technology company from a base in Scotland that will in itself help to build an AI ecosystem here.'
Hannah Seal, partner at Index Ventures, said: 'AI is revolutionising the legal profession, and Wordsmith is leading that charge. They are not just building a co-pilot, they are creating the foundational infrastructure for how entire organisations interact with legal. This is about reshaping enterprise operations, not just supporting legal teams. We are excited to back Ross and the Wordsmith team as they define a new category at the intersection of law, technology, and AI.'
Kate Forbes, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, said: 'Private investment is an essential building block of a strong and growing economy – and fundamental to ensuring businesses can grow and succeed. Scottish companies bucked the UK trend last year by attracting more than £700m of investment – up by a fifth on 2023 - and it is fantastic news that Wordsmith AI, a Techscaler member, has secured its $25m Series A funding round in such a short space of time.
'There can, must and will be many more success stories like this. From the Techscaler programme and our wider pipeline of support for entrepreneurs, to continuing to position Scotland as an investment destination, the Scottish Government will continue to help our start-up companies grow and prosper.'
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