Filevine Raises $400M in Two-Round Funding to Scale AI-Powered Legal Platform; I Speak with Its CEO

Authorized expertise firm Filevine introduced at the moment 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 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 more moderen spherical of about $260 million co-led by Accel and Halo Fund alongside Perception Companions. Earlier traders, 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 Sequence D spherical in April 2022 that was, on the time, one of many largest authorized 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 mentioned 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, knowledge, and connectivity they should ship actual enterprise impression.”
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 increase further capital. “We didn’t want cash,” Anderson mentioned. “However there was motive 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: Stay from Filevine’s LEX Summit: Interviews with Three of Its Leaders.
“Ryan known as me and he simply mentioned, ‘Hey, I would like 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 provided to place collectively an funding workforce to assist.
Smith, who famously constructed the “expertise administration” class at Qualtrics earlier than promoting the corporate to SAP, linked Anderson with Accel companions. “After listening to John Locke over at Accel, who’s the accomplice that did the take care of us, I acquired satisfied that this was time for an opportunistic increase,” Anderson mentioned.
Give attention to AI Expertise and Model Constructing
Anderson mentioned that the first use of the brand new capital can be expertise acquisition, significantly in synthetic intelligence and machine studying. “The first factor I believe you’ll see us do is try to exit and compete to get the easiest expertise.”
The corporate, which presently employs slightly below 700 individuals, is particularly focusing on AI engineers who historically haven’t been interested in jobs in authorized expertise.
“If you’re an AI engineer at the moment, what actually issues to you is being with an organization that believes in an AI-first … method to construct merchandise,” Anderson instructed me. “And people engineers actually do key off a bit bit on who your traders are and are they traders which have credibility in that.”
The funding additionally displays Filevine’s broader ambition to boost its profile past the authorized expertise group. The corporate not too long ago introduced a sponsorship take care of a hockey workforce, becoming a member of Clio because the second authorized tech firm with such a sponsorship.
“I don’t know that any authorized tech device goes to turn out to be a family title, however it’s positively an initiative of the corporate to get able to perhaps sometime IPO,” Anderson mentioned.
‘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 companies, authorities businesses, and Fortune 500 enterprises.
Anderson argues that Filevine’s benefit lies in having each the operational system containing all case knowledge and the AI capabilities to floor insights from that info.
“It requires an operational system that has all of the paperwork, the info, the deadlines, the notes, the phases of the case, the witnesses, you recognize, all the knowledge that you’d must run a case. It’s a must to have all that to floor that sort of element by way of AI,” he mentioned.
The corporate is especially targeted on litigation workflows, together with what Anderson describes as an end-to-end deposition expertise.
“You’ll be able to schedule a deposition out of Filevine. We will truly host the deposition after which, after all, stay within the deposition, as you recognize, with Depo Copilot, we are able to floor insights and course and recommendations to the attorneys 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 vital developments in agentic AI workflows that can 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 movement to do sure issues that we haven’t been capable of do within the system but,” he mentioned.
Anderson envisions a future the place attorneys 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 assessment these and as soon as Bob has reviewed it, ship an electronic mail to the managing accomplice for remaining log off.”
More and more Aggressive Panorama
The authorized tech market has seen an inflow of AI-focused firms over the previous two years, significantly focusing on litigation workflows the place Filevine initially established its area of interest. In our interview, Anderson acknowledged the elevated competitors however mentioned he welcomes it.
“I don’t wish to cede any of that territory to competing merchandise,” he mentioned. “We expect we now have constructed a platform that’s uniquely positioned to serve litigators, and which means we are able to’t sit on our arms and say, ‘You need to be right here as a result of we now have an important SaaS platform.’ It means we have to construct the easiest AI workflows for litigators as nicely.”
The corporate studies over 96% gross retention for Filevine Core, its flagship platform, and web greenback retention over 120%. Customers add greater than 20 million pages of paperwork day by day to the platform, in response to the corporate.
Defending the Position of Attorneys
Anderson pushed again towards Silicon Valley narratives suggesting AI will exchange attorneys totally. ”
I’ve heard numerous main lights within the AI house say issues like, ‘Properly, you recognize, we’re extra concerned with workflows that truly take the lawyer fully out of the loop.’ I believe that’s misguided,” he mentioned.
“Once I sit down and I discuss with our litigators about how they’re utilizing AI, the quantity of craft and talent and intention they need to convey to the AI device to make it do what they need it to do is gigantic,” he continued. “It might take years of talent and dedication to have the judgment to know use the AI in the proper manner.”
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 mentioned the corporate might pursue further acquisitions, constructing on its current 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 vital funding amid rising adoption of AI instruments in authorized observe.