January 20 (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence Startup Ivo has raised $55 million in a funding round, led by existing investor Blackbird, to accelerate the development of its legal services platform and hire more salespeople to meet “growing demand.”
The Series B funding round, announced Tuesday, values the company at around $355 million, according to a source familiar with the matter. It was joined by new investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1 and Icehouse Ventures.
Demand has increased for services that automate the heavy lifting that many law firms do for large corporations, fueling investor interest in the sector. Legal AI startup Harvey was valued at $8 billion last year in a $160 million fundraising round.
Ivo, whose clients include Uber, Shopify, IBM, Reddit and Canva, enables businesses to speed up the contract review process. The company said its revenue had grown sixfold since its last funding round in February last year.
The AI startup also helps companies leverage existing deals, “showing how their negotiating position and risk profile have changed,” CEO and co-founder Min-Kyu Jung told Reuters.
“The trend is increasingly toward more complex deals,” Jung said, noting that demand has shifted from simple, large-volume contracts to more complicated work.
Yet some high-profile legal errors involving AI-generated fake quotes have in recent years exposed the dangers of relying on technology prone to hallucinations.
In 2024, a Virginia judge ordered trial lawyers to explain why they should not be sanctioned for submitting a brief that he said appeared to include ‘fictitious cases.’
Jung said Ivo achieves high accuracy by dividing assessments into more than 400 separate AI tasks instead of just one, a detailed method that he says beats both standard chatbots.
The San Francisco-based company plans to use the new funds to triple its current workforce of 60 by the end of 2026.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)