Venture Capitalists Pour More Cash into Legal Tech Platforms with Atrium Investment
Atrium, which bills itself as a tech-powered platform providing flat-fee legal services to the startup community, is receiving investment from Silicon Valley heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz.
September 12, 2018 at 03:00 AM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
Venture capital is taking notable interest in legal industry “disrupters” this month, with San Francisco-based Atrium announcing $65 million in new funding just days after Kira Systems trumpeted a $50 million minority investment.
Atrium, which bills itself as a tech-powered platform providing flat-fee legal services to the startup community, is receiving investments from Silicon Valley heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, along with General Catalyst, YC Continuity Fund, and Sound Ventures.
Andreessen Horowitz partner Andrew Chen and Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel will also be joining the company's board of directors, and Marc Andreessen, himself valued at over $1 billion, will be a board observer.
Chen wrote in a blog post Monday that the legal industry has lagged behind as technology continues to transform other businesses.
“For law firms around the world, the customer experience, the business model, and the type of work they do have remained largely unchanged for decades, even while technology has transformed their clients and their industries,” he said. “The adoption of software has happened very slowly, and only in the most low-hanging areas.”
The announcement came almost a year after Atrium launched publicly as both a new law firm and a software company, two separate entities under the same roof. Atrium LTS, the venture-backed software side, designs and deploys software for the law firm to use, while Atrium LLP, the law firm, offers flat-fee services to the startup community via two specific services: Atrium Counsel and Atrium Financing.
Atrium also said that in its short history, the finance wing had already helped 250 clients raise a total of over $500 million in primary financings. On the technology side, the company revealed that it had acquired the artificial intelligence company Tetra, which offers a service that captures notes from telephone calls in order to build out its technology platform.
The company was founded by Twitch founder and Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur Justin Kan, who serves as CEO, and former Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Augie Rakow, who heads its legal operations. Atrium now has 110 employees.
“The Atrium team has impressed us with their amazing progress since the start,” Chen added, pointing to the number of employees, a client list that includes startups Alto, Bird, MessageBird, and Sift Science, and the $500 million figure. “These strong early results convinced us of the company's momentum, and proved there is a hunger for their services.”
The company's software platform uses machine learning to process documents and convert them into structured data and also focuses on the automation of repetitive tasks. The goal is to leave Atrium's lawyers with more time to advise clients and provide services that can't be automated more quickly.
Chen also pointed to the pedigrees of Kan, whose live streaming gaming platform company Twitch was bought by Amazon for $970 million, and Rakow, who advised autonomous car technology company Cruise Automation in its $1 billion acquisition by General Motors.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllTrending Stories
- 1Judicial Ethics Opinion 24-57
- 2Milbank Leads Bonus Race, Rolling Out Year-End Pay News
- 3Teen Overseas Boarding Schools Face Wave of Miami Federal Lawsuits
- 4Decision of the Day: While Judge Was 'Moved' by Immigrant Couple's Efforts to Cast Votes in 2024 Election, Late Registration Denied
- 5California-Based Portal Crypto Exchange Faces Delaware Investor Class Action
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250