AI legal tech Ivo raises USD $16 million to scale solutions

AI legal tech company Ivo has announced the successful completion of a USD $16 million Series A funding round aimed at scaling its AI-powered contract review solution.

The funding was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Fika Ventures, Uncork Capital, NFDG, Blackbird VC, GD1, and Phase One Ventures. This latest round brings the total funding for Ivo to USD $22.2 million, following earlier investments including a USD $4.8 million seed round led by Fika Ventures and Uncork Capital.

Ivo's platform, which has already been utilised by over 150 corporate legal teams including companies such as Canva, Fonterra, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City, aims to revolutionise contract review by providing accurate automated solutions for legal teams. By checking agreements against company requirements, generating specific suggestions, and creating compromise language, the platform is designed to mirror the work of experienced attorneys.

"When I was a corporate lawyer, contract review was amongst the most manual and time-consuming tasks," said Min-Kyu Jung, CEO and Co-founder of Ivo. "Determined to solve this problem myself, I left my legal career, taught myself to code, and began building what would become Ivo."

The introduction of Ivo Search Agent accompanies the funding announcement. This AI agent is said to reduce contract review time by 75% and transform how legal teams manage contract search and analysis. By eliminating the need for manual metadata tagging, it allows legal teams to handle large volumes of contracts more efficiently.

Adrie Christiansen, Legal Operations Lead at Quora, highlighted the impact of Ivo on their processes: "Ivo reduced our average time to approve counterparty NDAs for signatures from four days to two, while first pass turn improved from an average of 11 hours to 5 minutes." Similarly, Geotab's legal team reported a 75% efficiency gain per contract review.

Amy Cheetham, Partner at Costanoa Ventures, remarked, "Ivo is fundamentally transforming contract review for lawyers and legal teams. By leveraging AI to manage the meticulous, painstaking work of contract review, Ivo gives legal teams tools designed by lawyers to work faster with greater accuracy."

The demand for intelligent automation is surging within corporate legal departments, driven by the need to manage increasing volumes of contracts without compromising on accuracy. Ivo aims to meet this demand through sophisticated AI solutions, which are not only automation tools but also help augment legal judgement.

"The legal profession is in the early stages of an AI-driven transformation," added Min-Kyu Jung. "We're building Ivo to ensure this change enhances rather than diminishes the crucial role of legal judgment."