Authorized expertise firm Filevine introduced in the present day it has raised $400 million throughout two funding rounds over the previous 15 months, positioning the Salt Lake Metropolis-based firm as one of the crucial well-capitalized gamers within the authorized tech house.
The funding consists of a $150 million spherical led by Perception Companions accomplished about 15 months in the past, adopted by a newer spherical of about $260 million co-led by Accel and Halo Fund alongside Perception Companions. Earlier buyers, together with Meritech, Stepstone, Run Ventures, and Album Ventures, additionally participated within the newest spherical.
Filevine had beforehand raised about $226.1 million, together with a $108 million Series D round in April 2022 that was, on the time, one of many largest legal tech investments ever.
“This cements Filevine as a category-defining authorized expertise platform constructed with AI and absolutely built-in into the working system authorized groups depend on day by day,” the corporate stated in an announcement. “Whereas fragmented instruments create silos and supply restricted or incorrect perception, Filevine delivers one holistic AI platform giving authorized groups the size, information, and connectivity they should ship actual enterprise affect.”
The announcement comes simply forward of Filevine’s annual Lex Summit buyer convention, which convenes Sept. 29.
‘We Did Not Want the Cash’
In an interview with LawSites, Filevine cofounder and CEO Ryan Anderson defined that the corporate didn’t initially got down to elevate further capital. “We didn’t want cash,” Anderson stated. “However there was an excellent cause for it on this case.”
The catalyst got here from an surprising supply: Ryan Smith, the proprietor of the Utah Jazz and founding father of Qualtrics, who reached out to Anderson in June, following Filevine’s strongest quarter in firm historical past.
Associated: On LawNext: Live from Filevine’s LEX Summit: Interviews with Three of Its Leaders.
“Ryan known as me and he simply stated, ‘Hey, I would love to spend a while with you,’” Anderson recalled, saying that Smith satisfied him that Filevine was not “getting its due” as a acknowledged model and supplied to place collectively an funding group to assist.
Smith, who famously constructed the “expertise administration” class at Qualtrics earlier than promoting the corporate to SAP, related Anderson with Accel companions. “After listening to John Locke over at Accel, who’s the associate that did the cope with us, I bought satisfied that this was time for an opportunistic elevate,” Anderson stated.
Concentrate on AI Expertise and Model Constructing
Anderson stated that the first use of the brand new capital will probably be expertise acquisition, significantly in synthetic intelligence and machine studying. “The first factor I feel you’ll see us do is attempt to exit and compete to get the easiest expertise.”
The corporate, which at the moment employs slightly below 700 individuals, is particularly concentrating on AI engineers who historically haven’t been interested in jobs in authorized expertise.
“If you’re an AI engineer in the present day, what actually issues to you is being with an organization that believes in an AI-first … method to the way to construct merchandise,” Anderson instructed me. “And people engineers actually do key off a bit of bit on who your buyers are and are they buyers which have credibility in that.”
The funding additionally displays Filevine’s broader ambition to boost its profile past the authorized expertise group. The corporate just lately introduced a sponsorship cope with a hockey group, becoming a member of Clio because the second authorized tech firm with such a sponsorship.
“I don’t know that any authorized tech software goes to develop into a family title, but it surely’s undoubtedly an initiative of the corporate to get able to possibly sometime IPO,” Anderson stated.
‘Authorized Intelligence Working System’
Filevine positions itself as creating what it calls a “Authorized Working Intelligence System” – a complete platform that integrates case administration with AI capabilities. The corporate serves practically 6,000 prospects and 100,000 authorized professionals, primarily within the space of litigation, throughout regulation corporations, authorities businesses, and Fortune 500 enterprises.
Anderson argues that Filevine’s benefit lies in having each the operational system containing all case information and the AI capabilities to floor insights from that data.
“It requires an operational system that has all of the paperwork, the information, the deadlines, the notes, the phases of the case, the witnesses, you realize, all the data that you’d must run a case. You must have all that to floor that type of element through AI,” he stated.
The corporate is especially centered on litigation workflows, together with what Anderson describes as an end-to-end deposition expertise.
“You possibly can schedule a deposition out of Filevine. We are able to really host the deposition after which, in fact, stay within the deposition, as you realize, with Depo Copilot, we will floor insights and route and solutions to the legal professionals as they’re doing the deposition.”
Agentic AI on the Horizon
Whereas Anderson declined to disclose particular particulars of his product roadmap, he hinted at important developments in agentic AI workflows that will probably be introduced on the upcoming Lex Summit convention.
“We’ll announce some agentic workflows at Lex and also you’ll be capable of see the beginnings of Filevine utilizing an agentic stream to do sure issues that we haven’t been in a position to do within the system but,” he stated.
Anderson envisions a future the place legal professionals can work together conversationally with their authorized working system: “Draft me the preliminary set of discovery for this matter after which set a activity for Bob to overview these and as soon as Bob has reviewed it, ship an e-mail to the managing associate for ultimate log out.”
More and more Aggressive Panorama
The authorized tech market has seen an inflow of AI-focused firms over the previous two years, significantly concentrating on litigation workflows the place Filevine initially established its area of interest. In our interview, Anderson acknowledged the elevated competitors however stated he welcomes it.
“I don’t wish to cede any of that territory to competing merchandise,” he stated. “We expect we’ve constructed a platform that’s uniquely positioned to serve litigators, and meaning we will’t sit on our fingers and say, ‘You need to be right here as a result of we’ve an awesome SaaS platform.’ It means we have to construct the easiest AI workflows for litigators as properly.”
The corporate stories over 96% gross retention for Filevine Core, its flagship platform, and internet greenback retention over 120%. Customers add greater than 20 million pages of paperwork day by day to the platform, in accordance with the corporate.
Defending the Function of Legal professionals
Anderson pushed again in opposition to Silicon Valley narratives suggesting AI will substitute legal professionals fully. ”
I’ve heard quite a lot of main lights within the AI house say issues like, ‘Nicely, you realize, we’re extra thinking about workflows that truly take the lawyer utterly out of the loop.’ I feel that’s misguided,” he stated.
“Once I sit down and I discuss with our litigators about how they’re utilizing AI, the quantity of craft and ability and intention they must carry to the AI software to make it do what they need it to do is big,” he continued. “It might take years of ability and dedication to have the judgment to know the way to use the AI in the suitable means.”
Funding Construction and Future Plans
This newest funding was structured as all-equity financing, with a good portion of it representing new capital.
Past expertise acquisition, Anderson stated the corporate might pursue further acquisitions, constructing on its latest buy of Parrot, a courtroom reporting and deposition administration firm.
The funding announcement comes as Filevine prepares for the Lex Summit convention, the place the corporate plans to unveil new AI capabilities and proceed constructing its model within the broader expertise ecosystem.
The funding positions Filevine among the many most well-capitalized firms in authorized expertise, because the sector continues to draw important funding amid rising adoption of AI instruments in authorized follow.
