Investors Finally Warm Up to Legal Tech

Two months plus $200 million equals one sea change.

That's the math for a notable shift in legal tech. In the past two months, investors have poured in almost $200 million to legal tech startups.

It hasn't always been that way. In fact, last year startups were at a 30-year low. So what happened?

Game Not Over?

With big tech companies like Facebook and Amazon dominating, young firms were struggling. Legal tech was falling in that same shadow.

But now come big bucks for firms like Exterro, Seal Software, and Everlaw. They raked in more than $155 million in funding them in May and June.

Add another $42.5 million for Eigen, Tessian, and LawGeex since April, and we're talking a $200 million quarter of financing.

Exterro, an e-discovery firm, took the lion's share of the haul. Founded in 2004, it was the first time the privately-held company took outside investment.

E-Discovery Money

The investors put their money primarily in e-discovery and AI. Robert Ambrogi, writing for Above the Law, said it follows a pattern.

"All the companies are focused on the use of AI to streamline legal work and deliver better results," he said. "And all of the companies are targeting the big firm/big company sector."

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