Latest news with #MaxJunestrand
Business Insider
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The offers flooded in for red-hot legal tech startup Legora's new $80 million funding round
General Catalyst and Iconiq Growth are co-leading an $80 million funding round into Legora, a startup that makes software to help bogged-down lawyers speed up legal research and drafting. The new funding for the New York, London, and Stockholm-based Legora will value the company at $675 million, following last year's $35 million Series A. Existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Benchmark, and Y Combinator increased their stakes in this Series B round. In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Legora CEO Max Junestrand said the company wasn't actively seeking funding, but still, the offers flooded in. "I don't think it's a secret that things have been really working," Junestrand said. When Seth Pierrepont heard whispers of Legora's fundraise, he boarded a flight to Stockholm. The Iconiq investor had done dozens of calls with law firms about the tools changing the way their attorneys work. The Legora name kept coming up. "What they're looking for now is a partner," Pierrepont said, "someone that they know will build the features they ask for and will respond quickly to the questions they have. And I think that is the gap that Legora has stepped into." Junestrand declined to provide revenue or growth figures, but said the company's revenue growth is "extremely positive." It has 250 clients in 20 markets, including big-league law firms like Cleary Gottlieb, Goodwin, Bird & Bird, and Mannheimer Swartling, Sweden's largest law firm. Legora builds chatbots and agents — software that can perform basic tasks on their own — for things like redlining a contract, drafting, or filling in a checklist for a transaction. In recent months, it's added a Microsoft Word add-in and other features that large law firms demand. Legora's closest analog is legal-tech heavyweight Harvey. The company works closely with major law firms to craft custom software, offering the agility of a startup with the tailored approach of a high-end consulting firm. Its annual recurring revenue surpassed $70 million in April, according to a spokesperson. Legora's funding is the latest in a string of high-profile legal-tech investments, following companies like Harvey and Supio. General Catalyst, in particular, has been building a strong portfolio of startups reshaping the delivery of legal services. In February, it led a $105 million initial round for Eudia, a platform designed for Fortune 500 legal teams. Mary O'Carroll, Goodwin's chief operating officer, said the firm piloted many tools before signing up with Legora. On the surface, some of the products seem quite similar, she said. But Legora edged out its competition with a clean, easy-to-use interface and a feature called tabular review, which lets users search thousands of files for exactly the information they need all at once. Legora also stood out for its approach to empowering lawyers. The company meets regularly with firm leaders to tightly tailor the product to their needs. "We feel like we're not just adopting the technology," O'Carroll told BI, "we're co-creating with them." The new funding gives Legora fresh firepower to grow its team and chip away at Harvey's dominance. In addition, the company announced that General Catalyst's Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Iconiq's Pierrepont have joined its board. Investors are betting on the team just as much as the tech to drive growth. Jack Altman, an investor through his venture firm Alt Capital, described Junestrand as an "ambitious, gritty" European founder with a Silicon Valley ethos. Gradient's Darian Shirazi, who wrote an angel check into Legora, praised Junestrand's customer obsession, which he says is matched only by his focus on results. With a team of around 100 employees, Legora is proving that smaller doesn't mean slower, and that being second to market doesn't mean it's out of the race.
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Legal AI Startup Legora In Talks To Raise New Funding At A $675 Million Valuation
A flurry of AI startups are making a pitch that their tools can increase productivity and automate some tasks. Among them is fledgling AI startup Legora which is in talks to raise funding at a $675 million valuation. Getty AI startup Legora is in talks to raise $85 million in funding at a $675 million valuation, according to five sources familiar with the deal. General Catalyst and Iconiq are leading the deal, these people said. Existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Benchmark are also participating in the round. Legora, General Catalyst and Iconiq have not yet responded to requests for comment. Legora's AI software helps lawyers draft contracts, review and analyze documents, and run checks against legal databases, automating some of the most repetitive and tedious tasks for attorneys. Its system is built on top of Microsoft's Azure platform and combines a variety of AI models from the likes of OpenAI and Meta. Over the last few months, Legora has signed deals with a string of big name law firms like Cleary Gottlieb, Goodwin and London-based Addleshaw Goddard. Cofounded in 2023 in Stockholm by 25-year-old CEO Max Junestrand, CTO Sigge Labor and CPO August Erseus, the 60-person company now boasts over 250 customers across more than 20 countries, according to its website. In February, the company rebranded itself from Leya to Legora and soon after opened new offices in New York City, its first outpost outside Europe. At the time it had just $35 million in total backing. With this new raise it has about $120 million. It's still playing catch up with OpenAI-backed rival Harvey which has raised over $500 million with its last round at a $3 billion valuation. Before starting Legora, Junestrand worked as an analyst at European venture fund Norrsken VC. Months after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, his Swedish cofounders Labor and Erseus built a chatbot that allowed a person to ask questions about documents they uploaded into it. That became the genesis for Legora, which was part of startup accelerator Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch. A flurry of AI startups are making a pitch that their tools can increase productivity and automate some tasks. Harvey AI is stacked up against British rival Robin AI, and EvenUp, which specializes in processing personal injury claims and raised a $135 million round led by Bain Capital Ventures in October, notching a valuation of over $1 billion. In 2023, Thomson Reuters acquired legal AI firm Castext for $650 million. And then there are smaller startups like Spellbook, Supio and Luminance. Lawyers could make an ideal testing ground for AI tools given that unlike many other knowledge workers they closely track productivity with client billing often measured in six minute increments. And with many large American law firms billing clients on average around $1,000 per hour, and partners' pay packets linked with profits, many have been quick to sign AI trials that could potentially reduce both time and costs. Legora's new round comes on the heels of a 2024 $25 million Series A funding round led by Redpoint Ventures along with participation from Y Combinator, Benchmark, Wayfinder Ventures and Jack Altman's Alt Capital. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes AI Startup Decagon In Talks To Raise $100 Million At A $1.5 Billion Valuation By Rashi Shrivastava Forbes Khosla Ventures In Talks To Lead $100 Million Funding For Defense Startup Mach By David Jeans Forbes Why OpenAI And Google Are Betting On This AI Unicorn With A $100 Million Deal By Alicia Park Forbes For AI Startups, A 7-Day Work Week Isn't Enough By Richard Nieva
