LegalOn
Technologies,
a
global
company
that
provides
AI-driven
software
for
contract
review
and
matter
management,
has
closed
a
$50
million
Series
E
funding
round
led
by
Goldman
Sachs
Growth
Equity,
bringing
the
company’s
total
funding
to
$200
million
since
its
founding
in
2017.
The
company
also
today
announced
a
strategic
collaboration
with
OpenAI,
the
company
behind
ChatGPT,
that
gives
LegalOn
access
to
OpenAI’s
latest
models
and
brings
together
engineers
from
both
companies
to
work
on
developing
advanced
legal
AI
agents.
Also
participating
in
the
funding
round
was
existing
investor
World
Innovation
Lab
(WiL),
along
with
new
participation
from
prominent
Japanese
financial
institutions
including
Mori
Hamada,
Mizuho
Bank,
and
Shoko
Chukin.
LegalOn
says
it
will
use
the
capital
to
scale
its
agentic
AI
product
development
and
its
sales
and
marketing
efforts.
“Legal
teams
are
buried
in
time-consuming
work
that
slows
them
and
their
businesses
down,”
said
Daniel
Lewis,
Global
CEO
of
LegalOn
(pictured
above
with
cofounder
Nozomu
Tsunoda).
“This
funding
helps
us
build
and
scale
AI
that
eliminates
tedious
contracting
work,
streamlining
workflows
and
freeing
people
to
think,
decide
and
lead.”
More
than
7,000
Customers
The
Series
E
raise
comes
as
LegalOn
continues
to
show
notable
growth
across
its
global
operations.
The
company
says
it
now
supports
more
than
7,000
customers
–
a
40%
increase
year-over-year.
In
the
U.S.
and
U.K.,
its
business
quadrupled
over
the
past
year.
LegalOn’s
market
position
is
perhaps
most
pronounced
in
its
home
base
of
Japan,
where
the
company
serves
25%
of
the
nation’s
public
companies
and
87%
of
its
Fortune
500,
including
40
global
Fortune
500
companies.
Earlier
this
month,
the
company
announced
major
upgrades
to
its
user
interface
and
legal
AI
tools
and
expansion
into
matter
management,
marking
its
evolution
from
a
specialized
contract
review
platform
to
a
more
comprehensive
legal
workflow
solution.
Founded
in
Japan
LegalOn
was
founded
in
Japan
in
2017
by
Nozomu
Tsunoda
and
Masataka
Ogasawara,
both
former
corporate
attorneys,
who
set
out
to
solve
the
inefficiencies
they
experienced
in
contract
review.
Tsunoda,
who
previously
practiced
corporate
law
at
the
Japanese
firm
Mori
Hamada
&
Matsumoto,
became
frustrated
with
the
frequency
of
mistakes
and
time
consumed
in
reviewing
contracts.
The
company
initially
operated
under
the
name
LegalForce
in
Japan,
where
it
quickly
gained
traction
among
corporations
and
law
firms.
By
the
time
it
expanded
to
the
U.S.
in
2022,
LegalOn
had
already
established
itself
as
one
of
Japan’s
largest
providers
of
AI
contract
review
technology,
serving
over
3,000
customers
with
a
team
of
400
employees.
When
it
launched
in
the
U.S.
the
company
named
Lewis
as
U.S.
CEO,
later
promoting
him
to
global
CEO.
Lewis
previously
co-founded
and
led
the
legal
research
platform
Ravel
Law
before
its
acquisition
by
LexisNexis
in
2017.
Lewis
has
been
instrumental
in
spearheading
the
company’s
growth
in
English-speaking
markets.
Combining
AI
with
Legal
Expertise
LegalOn’s
approach
to
legal
AI
distinguishes
it
from
many
competitors
in
the
market.
Rather
than
simply
automating
contract
processes,
the
company
combines
advanced
AI
with
legal
expertise
developed
by
its
in-house
team
of
attorneys.
This
hybrid
approach,
it
says,
ensures
that
AI
recommendations
are
both
accurate
and
also
grounded
in
practical
legal
knowledge.
LegalOn’s
AI
contract
review
tool,
Review,
identifies
contract
risks
and
suggests
revisions
based
on
attorney-built
playbooks
and
each
organization’s
unique
legal
standards.
The
company
says
it
can
reduce
contract
review
time
by
up
to
85%.
The
company
says
its
recent
expansion
into
matter
management
represents
a
natural
evolution
of
its
platform.
“Contract
pain
is
acute
when
reviewing
agreements,
but
it
includes
steps
before
and
after,
which
is
why
we’ve
expanded
to
matter
management,”
Lewis
said
at
the
time.
“Now
we
can
help
legal
teams
intake,
respond
to
and
track
all
sorts
of
requests
from
the
business,
not
just
contracts.”
Partnership
with
OpenAI
Regarding
the
strategic
collaboration
with
OpenAI
it
announced
today,
LegalOn
says
that
the
partnership
gives
it
access
to
OpenAI’s
cutting-edge
models,
enabling
faster
and
better
product
development
using
the
most
advanced
AI
technologies.
As
part
of
the
collaboration,
engineers
from
both
companies
will
work
together
to
develop
advanced
legal
AI
agents.
“From
day
one,
we’ve
focused
on
building
solutions
that
help
in-house
legal
teams
move
faster,
reduce
risk
and
drive
greater
business
impact,”
said
LegalOn
cofounder
Nozomu
Tsunoda,
now
the
company’s
group
CEO.
“Collaborating
with
OpenAI
puts
us
at
the
forefront
of
innovation
and
accelerates
our
mission
to
transform
legal
work
with
trustworthy
AI,
enabling
us
to
bring
even
more
advanced
tools
that
meet
the
high
standards
our
customers
expect.”
Product
Development
LegalOn
was
among
the
first
to
introduce
generative
AI
features
for
contract
review
when
it
launched
AI
Revise
in
April
2023,
which
it
described
as
“the
first
AI
contract
editing
tool
enhanced
by
expert
legal
knowledge.”
Last
year,
it released
its
generative
AI
assistant,
LegalOn
Assistant,
and
earlier
this
year,
it
expanded
its
contract
review
platform
with
a feature
to
create
custom
playbooks.
Its
platform
updates
earlier
this
month
represented
some
of
its
most
comprehensive
developments
yet,
introducing
matter
management
capabilities
alongside
significant
enhancements
to
existing
features.
Among
the
new
capabilities
were
review
of
redlines
to
first-party
paper,
translation
across
28
languages,
AI
knowledge
management,
and
an
expanded
AI
assistant
that
works
across
the
entire
platform.
Goldman
Sachs’
Investment
Goldman
Sachs
said
that
its
leadership
of
the
round
reflects
its
continuing
commitment
to
legal
technology
innovation
for
corporate
legal
departments.
“By
combining
advanced
AI
with
deep
legal
expertise,
LegalOn
is
reinventing
the
contracting
process
and
empowering
legal
departments
to
work
faster
and
more
strategically,”
said
Stephanie
Hui,
global
co-head
of
growth
equity
at
Goldman
Sachs
Alternatives.
“As
they
rapidly
gain
traction
across
global
markets,
we
believe
LegalOn
is
uniquely
positioned
to
define
the
future
of
AI-powered
legal
technology.”
Goldman
Sachs
had
previously
participated
in
LegalOn’s
$101
million
Series
D
round
in
2022,
which
was
led
by
SoftBank
Vision
Fund
2
and
included
participation
from
Sequoia
China.