David Richards MBE, founder of Yorkshire AI Labs, is unequivocal in his view of where the legal profession is heading – and intends to be at the forefront of the disruption.

Yorkshire AI Labs operates a sweat equity and cash model. Among the startups being incubated within it is Lexcelerate, a LegalTech which is targeting remortgages initially but has grander plans long-term.

LEXcelerate has been launched by Yorkshire AI Labs and aims to do for conveyancing what Uber did for taxis. Mark Hewitt, architect of the firm’s proprietary AI platform, has spent the last 30 years helping manufacturing, legal, insurance and property companies to transform their operations using tech.

“The starting point was a remortgage,â€� recalls Mark to ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud for Founder Friday. “The whole process, from start to finish, was atrocious: the lack of communication, the lack of interaction, and actually the mistakes that were made.

“So I decided that I would have a go – connecting to the land registry, allowing AI to read and understand and interpret documents such as a mortgage offer. And that started to work.â€�

Mark previously led legal software startup Rebmark from concept to more than £1 million in annual recurring revenue before its acquisition by Verisk Analytics, a NASDAQ-listed data analytics group headquartered in New Jersey.

The software was subsequently expanded into the insurance sector and is now used to manage more than £10 billion of catastrophic injury claims reserves.

“I had a lot of legal contacts and so I started to look at whether it could be a piece of software that could be packaged up,â€� says Mark. “But the reality was that wasn’t going to work – because you would have to throw away everything that a law firm currently does and start from scratch.â€�

Thinking bigger

He had known David, a multiple-exit entrepreneur, for more than 20 years. As founder of WANdisco, David had dual-headquartered the data firm in Sheffield and San Francisco but stepped down in 2023 after the actions of a rogue sales employee triggered a fraud scandal. The firm subsequently rebranded to Cirata plc.

“I knew him in passing – and from the pub! – and saw that he was back in Sheffield and launching Yorkshire AI Labs. I basically made it so that he couldn’t avoid me!â€� says Mark.

“Dave sent me off to speak to mortgage brokers, and also to have my idea sense-checked by Paul.�

This isn’t any old Paul from down the pub, but Paul Firth – a highly respected figure in British commercial property law who built DLA Piper into one of the world’s largest law firms and also served as UK regional managing partner at Irwin Mitchell for almost seven years.

“After those conversations, I told Dave that this didn’t work as a software play. He smiled and said: ‘I know – you need to think bigger. You have to ‘be’ the law firm.â€�

So rather than bolting software into a law firm, the idea is to replace the case management and practice management systems themselves, rewriting the whole process.

So starting with remortgages, an established law firm might have 20-25 stages, says Mark: “We’re past 150 steps, and a lot of them can be automated.

“So our starting point is to take the mortgage offer and effectively deconstruct it; then go to the land registry and get the title for property.

“The simplest check is: are the people that are listed on the mortgage offer the people that are listed as the owners of the property? 99.9% of the time that will be the case. But maybe they’ve got married since, leading to a difference in name; maybe there is a spelling mistake in the name; or an incorrect address or date of birth.

“Within about seven seconds of taking that mortgage offer we can highlight any issues that might come down the line; we can then go through the KYC (know-your-customer) and identity checks.

“The reality is that the computer is better at validating all this than a human is ever going to be.�

Lexcelerate’s target market is mortgage brokers who ordinarily suggest a law firm to their clients.

“If you ask a mortgage broker what their key issue is, it’s communication,� says Mark. “They are forever chasing up to find out where the law firm is in the process.�

Uber model

David draws a parallel with taxi disrupter Uber. “Minicabs existed – but what Uber did very cleverly was put it into an app; tell you exactly how much it was going to cost; exactly when it was going to arrive; and exactly where it was going to drop you off. All of it tracked.

“And what else did Uber do? They’re the biggest taxi company in the world without actually owning any taxis.�

He expands: “So Lexcelerate is a law firm – but in the same way that you can order an Uber, or sign up as an Uber driver, you can find a conveyancer, or register as one in under five minutes.

“We think we can become the world’s largest virtual law firm, in the same way that Uber is the largest virtual taxi firm.â€�

Of meeting Mark, he recalls: “Mark came in and he had the technology, but he didn’t have the customers. So we went out and signed up mortgage brokers straight away. What we then needed was the deep domain expertise.â€�

The Three Amigos

Enter Paul. “At DLA we had a troubled subsidiary called DLA Direct, that were basically doing remortgages for Halifax, Lloyds Bank and people like that, at scale,� Paul says. “It was losing money when I got involved; we turned it round and sold it, ultimately, to Capita for about £14 million.

“What I learned during that process was how much of remortgaging could be basically done by cutting the process down and breaking it up into the constituent parts. This was way before AI [as we know it], but even then we could find significant cost reductions and efficiency improvements on each job.

“That’s what first triggered my interest in this. And now, what Mark has produced is highly impressive.â€�

So impressive, in fact, that Paul agreed to lead Lexcelerate. “It’s ready to roll out, and we really do think we can change the market.â€�

Back to David, the computer scientist who envisions a sea-change of tsunami proportions across industries.

“In the same way that [large language model] Claude makes a software engineer 25 times more effective, we make lawyers 25 times more effective – which means that there are 25 times too many lawyers,â€� he says. “The disruption is going to be across the entire sphere – most of the tasks are going to be gone.

“But what this platform actually does is give lawyers a chance of surviving. It won’t be hard to find a lawyer that’s looking for work – starting now.â€�

Meet Sheffield founder unlocking healthy device habits for kids

Luddites

Referencing the Luddites who protested against the Industrial Revolution, he continues: “There’s going to be massive unemployment. People still live in cloud cuckoo land.â€�

Yorkshire AI Labs is also looking to build disrupters across orthodontics; journalism; advanced manufacturing; and football scouting.

The next step for Lexcelerate is to buy a law firm, says David. “We’re looking at two or three different opportunities. Given what we’re doing, we don’t need to buy something with 100 lawyers in it.

“We can buy something with zero lawyers, and we will be able to execute. It just needs to be a shell. It just needs the operating license.�

There will be rival startups with the same idea, he admits. “Our philosophy is that we’re not bothered about competition. This is a £6 trillion global market – I’m okay with the 10% of that! A few hundred billion would be perfectly fine.â€�

Paul, who acquired tens of businesses at DLA Piper and loves deal-making, says: “What I like about this project is just seeing where we can take it.

“I’ve seen the legal business from the inside and, in many ways, it is very complacent. They think that the chargeable hour is here forever. Big commercial law firms are now charging £1,200 an hour for a partner.

“Why would you want to pay that when you can do it for a fraction of the price and get a better service?�

He adds: “This will scale far quicker than DLA, where we were acquiring law firms, trying to integrate cultures from different countries and having to deal with all the regulatory side of international business.�

The shining Dymond at heart of Sheffield’s tech ecosystem

The post Could world’s largest virtual law firm be created in Sheffield? appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

HyperLaw, which is located on the Staffordshire Technology Park in Stafford, was founded by experienced tech entrepreneur Mike Washburn in 2014.

Washburn (pictured, left) previously launched and sold ScriptSwitch for £50 million. In 2022 he said he had invested more than £1.3m in the development of HyperLaw, a provider of advanced case preparation and bundling software.

“The inspiration for HyperLaw came from my own personal, painful experience of fighting a legal claim, with my legal team regularly coming into meetings armed with 20-plus lever arch folders full of paperwork and being constantly charged for various people reading the same information,� he said in 2022.

“This got me thinking: how can we take a very traditional industry with laborious practices and bring it into the 21st Century through the clever use of technology?”

Now it has been acquired by Australian company Legal Ready, described as a global leader in litigation management technology.

The firms say the strategic acquisition – for an undisclosed sum – creates ‘an unmatched end-to-end solution designed for UK barristers, law firms, and government legal departments, enabling them to prepare and present cases with greater efficiency and strategic edge’.

It will enable legal teams to leverage AI-enabled tools to manage complex court materials and collaborate effortlessly across teams; transform unwieldy PDF bundles into individual documents that legal teams can analyse and work on, using the recently launched PDFUnbundler tool; and access a centralised, intelligent platform that streamlines the preparation and presentation of arguments in any legal setting.

“Efficient and strategic litigation management in the UK has been constrained by a bundle-centric mindset,â€� said HyperLaw managing director Washburn.

“Document bundling is an important feature, but not a complete solution. Joining forces with Legal Ready allows us to accelerate our mission of transforming case preparation. 

“Our combined platform delivers a level of integration that the UK legal market hasn’t seen – blending advanced automation and collaboration with the security and transparency that our clients need to uphold the highest standards.”

Tony Kinnear, CEO of Legal Ready, added: “The acquisition of HyperLaw is a game-changer for the UK market. 

“By incorporating HyperLaw’s brilliant bundling tech into our AI-powered litigation management suite, we are providing a toolkit to UK lawyers that is unmatched. 

“Our goal is to ensure that all disputes’ practitioners have the most effective, secure, and collaborative environment possible to prepare their matters, all while maintaining a ‘people-first’, human-in-the-loop approach to technology.â€�

THIS co-founders launch utterly different business in Keith

The post Serial entrepreneur’s HyperLaw snapped up by Aussie firm appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman sold their burger chain business back in 2016 and two years later founded THIS, a market-leading vegan brand with cheeky marketing which recently announced its first profitable month.

Now they have turned their attention to something completely different.

“In a quite natural and linear progression from selling vegan sausages, I’m proud to announce that I’m now co-founding a law firm called Keith,â€� Shovel wrote on LinkedIn.

“About a year ago, I tried to buy a house. It went spectacularly wrong, I got really grumpy and complained – a lot. But like any grumpy founder, I’ve channelled the bad mood into an attempt to solve the problem, via Keith.â€�

Shovel described the house-buying experience as a “monumental shocker… sleepless nights, hounding solicitors and a dodgy seller – the full worksâ€�. 

He added: “I was blown away by how clunky the process was, and how no technology was being incorporated to help.�

Keith, set to launch this summer, claims to automate 80% of traditionally human workflows and has a 24/7 AI-powered client helpline. 

Backed VC led Keith’s seed round, with Breega and several angel investors also making up the £2m.

“For most people, dealing with a solicitor means waiting, chasing and not knowing what’s going on. Keith removed those pain-points using technology, and we’re hugely excited to back the business,� said Andre De Haes, partner at Backed VC. 

Sam Tucker, Keith’s third founder who oversees product, previously started hybrid scheduling platform Common Surface. 

Eddie Goldsmith – former chairman of the UK Conveyancing Association and founder of a market-leading conveyancing firm in the 90s – is a strategic advisor and non-executive director.

Each year, more than 530,000 UK property transactions fall through, causing untold emotional and financial strain, within a system widely seen as slow, opaque and fundamentally broken. Conveyancing will be Keith’s first market, before it expands to other practice areas.

Prezzo CEO’s ‘mind blown’ as he raises £4.5m for TiPJAR

At the core of Keith is a network of specialised AI agents that handle document review, drafting, communication and workflow management, all within tightly controlled legal frameworks and with human oversight. 

The result is a firm designed to operate continuously, rapidly and with client service levels usually only available to high net-worth clients.

Keith is targeting a 70% reduction in transaction times in the hope of mitigating risk and stress for clients. 

In a first for UK legal services, Keith’s client service agent will be available 24/7 via phone and WhatsApp, and will be almost indistinguishable from a person – with the ability to answer questions, provide updates and take actions instantly. 

The company is entering a £54 billion UK legal market that remains highly fragmented and largely unchanged for decades – a market it believes is now ripe to be disrupted by tech-first brands like Keith. 

“Legal services haven’t yet been transformed by tech,â€� said Shovel. “But it’s coming. And when it does, it won’t look like a traditional law firm with software bolted on – we think it will look like Keith.â€�

Graduate turns dissertation into GreenTech business

The post THIS co-founders launch utterly different business in Keith appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

The fast-growing investigation software specialist, founded in 2011, has a 15-year track record of developing and deploying digital investigation software, used by law enforcement, government agencies and corporations. 

Based in Woodbridge, near Ipswich, the company recently launched the Chorus Intelligence Suite, which is being rapidly adopted across its key UK and US markets. 

The platform enables multiple users to automate the processing of large and complex data sources, connect disparate structured and unstructured data points efficiently, identify suspects and criminal networks, improve evidential outputs and facilitate the acceleration and collaboration of digital investigations. 

The CIS delivers a proven and significant return on investment for the company’s clients, it says, by helping solve more crimes, driving increased efficiencies and saving resources.

The transaction was led by Maven’s UK Regional Buyout Fund II. 

DSW Capital blames Iran war for deals stalling

“The entire Chorus team are delighted to welcome Maven to Chorus. This investment from Maven marks an important milestone in our journey as we gear up for our next phase of growth,� said Boyd Mulvey, founder and executive chairman at Chorus.

“The expertise Maven bring in scaling high-growth technology companies will be invaluable as we accelerate our AI product roadmap, expand our global footprint and continue delivering exceptional value to our customers.�

Maven’s buyout team has completed 38 platform buyouts and 26 exits, delivering an average 3x return.

“Chorus is a fast-growing business which is operating in a market experiencing strong structural growth,� said Tom Purkis, partner at Maven. 

“Digital intelligence is becoming an essential component of modern investigations. Chorus has invested heavily in technology, with its next-generation CIS platform already delivering measurable efficiency gains and return on investment for customers in both the UK and US. 

“We are delighted to support the team as they continue to scale the business, expand its international presence and further enhance the platform’s capabilities to support its customers.”

Unseen Group completes 11th acquisition with Seenit

The post Chorus Intelligence secures £15m Maven PE deal appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

LEXcelerate has been launched by Yorkshire AI Labs and aims to do for conveyancing what Uber did for taxis.

The firm will be led by Paul Firth (pictured), a highly respected figure in British commercial property law who also served as national head of real estate at Irwin Mitchell, tripling the size of the practice in four years. Firth is also a former CEO and chair of Creative Sheffield.

LEXcelerate is co-founded by Mark Hewitt, the architect of the firm’s proprietary AI platform and a 30-year veteran of legal and manufacturing technology.

The legal process for remortgages today typically takes six to eight weeks, with little visibility for clients. LEXcelerate’s ambition is to reduce the manual element of a remortgage to just 15 minutes of fee earner time, with transactions completed in around two weeks.

Automating approximately 90% of administrative tasks, it also aims to give clients the ability to track their transaction in real time.

The launch comes at a time of rapid change in the legal profession, the startup says: more than a quarter of legal professionals now report using generative AI in their daily work, while large firms are deploying AI for document review, contract drafting and due diligence. 

Regulators have issued guidance on responsible use, while judges have warned against careless reliance on unverified AI outputs.

LEXcelerate, meanwhile, argues that legal expertise should be focused where it adds value – not absorbed by repetitive process.

“Conveyancing has become dominated by administration rather than judgement,� said Firth.

“Technology now allows us to automate the repetitive elements and give clients clarity, speed and certainty. 

“That inevitably changes the structure of the workforce, but it also improves quality and consistency.�

For more than 30 years, CTO Hewitt has helped organisations transform their operations using automation, AI and workflow optimisation across manufacturing, legal, insurance and property sectors.

He previously led legal software startup Rebmark from concept to more than £1 million in annual recurring revenue before its acquisition by Verisk Analytics, a NASDAQ-listed data analytics group headquartered in New Jersey. 

The software was subsequently expanded into the insurance sector and is now used to manage more than £10 billion of catastrophic injury claims reserves.

Yorkshire life sciences firm impacted by ‘mistaken assumptions’

He said: “We have built LEXcelerate from scratch as a technology-first business. Traditional firms bolt technology onto paper-based processes. We redesigned the process itself. When you automate at that level, you do not just go faster. You operate differently.�

The firm has been launched by Yorkshire AI Labs, which operates a sweat equity and cash model. Among its portfolio companies are manufacturing tech firms FourJaw and IntelliAM.

David Richards MBE, founder of Yorkshire AI Labs, said: “Artificial intelligence is not nibbling at the edges of professional services. It is tearing through them. Law, accountancy, consulting, compliance – every process-driven industry is being rewritten in real time. Firms that believe this is incremental change are misreading the moment. This is structural disruption.

“Over the next decade, AI will remove entire layers of manual professional work. The question is not whether that happens. It is who builds the new model. In Sheffield, we have decided to build it.�

Candy’s Cupcakes founder’s journey from home kitchen to £2m turnover

The post Former DLA Piper UK boss to lead new Sheffield AI law firm appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

Lawhive, live in 35 states and targeting a presence in all 50, plans to scale its model of building the world’s first ‘AI-native consumer law firm’.

In addition to Lawhive’s Austin office, a New York office is being opened to support this next stage of US growth.

The round was led by Mitch Rales, co-founder of Danaher Corporation, with participation from TQ Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), Balderton Capital, Jigsaw, Anton Levy and LTS.

The investment comes within a year of Lawhive’s $40m Series A, which included England footballers. In 2024 it raised £9.5m seed funding. Annual revenue now exceeds $35m, having grown sevenfold in the past year.

Lawhive has developed its own AI operating system to reduce the time, cost and administrative burden associated with everyday legal matters, enabling cases to be handled with greater speed, consistency and predictability. 

The company created the world’s first AI-native law firm in 2023, now powered by 450 lawyers across the US and UK, practicing through Lawhive’s AI-operating system. 

To date, Lawhive has helped tens of thousands of clients navigate family law, landlord and tenant disputes, property transactions, civil disputes, and consumer rights matters. Demand is being driven both by consumers who want faster, more affordable access to their legal rights, and by lawyers who want to be more productive, profitable and efficient by leveraging AI to scale their legal practices.

“The pace of growth over the past year reflects the scale of the problem we are tackling,� said Pierre Proner, CEO and co-founder.

“Everyday legal matters remain costly and unpredictable for millions of people, while lawyers are held back by manual processes that limit their efficiency and scale of their legal practices.

“AI is finally making it possible to achieve a breakthrough in delivering consumer legal services with the speed and consistency people expect. 

“The reaction from lawyers and clients in the US has been exceptionally strong,  and this funding allows us to build on US momentum and scale our model.�

Lawyer founds platform to combat rising solicitor-client disputes

In 2025 Lawhive completed the acquisition of Woodstock Legal Services in the UK. Lawhive now plans to expand their model in the US, where the consumer legal market is highly fragmented and dominated by thousands of small firms that lack modern infrastructure. 

Lawhive’s technology supports lawyers and back-office teams by automating tasks such as document drafting, research, case management, client intake and payments. Lawhive’s AI paralegal, Lawrence, works alongside lawyers and support staff to collaborate on casework and administrative tasks. 

Rales, co-founder of Danaher Corporation, said: “Lawhive is democratising legal services by providing access to high quality and transparent consumer legal services. I’m excited for my business building firm, New Bearing, to partner with Lawhive’s talented management team to build operational excellence into everything that Lawhive does for consumers and lawyers.

“Pierre, his co-founders and I share a mindset that we are building Lawhive for the next decades ahead of us.�

Financielle tops 350,000 downloads after GC Angels investment

The post Lawhive raises £44m after rapid US expansion appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

As a costs lawyer who has worked closely with solicitors across a wide range of practice areas, Morrison-Hughes says she is acutely aware of the regulatory, commercial and practical pressures law firms operate under.

Developed in response to rising solicitor–client disputes, increasing Legal Ombudsman complaints and heightened regulatory scrutiny, The Legal Lexi addresses one of the profession’s most persistent risk areas: misunderstandings around fees, scope of service and informed consent.

The Wilmslow-based platform translates complex legal and cost information into plain English, supported by optional audio explanations. 

Clients are guided through key information and asked short, structured questions, enabling firms to evidence genuine understanding and consent in a practical, audit-ready format.

The Legal Lexi has been designed not as an additional hoop to jump through, but as a tool that supports solicitors in meeting their obligations confidently, consistently and proportionately.

“Solicitors are navigating an increasingly complex landscape – regulatory expectations, consumer law, vulnerability guidance, complaints risk – all while trying to deliver good legal outcomes for their clients,â€� said Morrison-Hughes.

“I’ve seen first-hand how easily misunderstandings can arise, even where firms are acting properly and in good faith. The Legal Lexi was designed to support and protect solicitors as much as their clients, by helping them communicate clearly, evidence transparency, and reduce risk without adding unnecessary burden.

“When clients truly understand their costs, everyone is in a stronger position.�

Maven-backed Summize raises another £40m to grow in US

Built with accessibility at its core, The Legal Lexi is particularly valuable for clients with dyslexia or other vulnerabilities, ensuring no client feels embarrassed or pressured into agreeing to terms they do not fully understand.

Alongside its launch, The Legal Lexi has also confirmed the appointment of Sucheet Amin as an investor and non-executive director.

Amin is a UK-based solicitor, entrepreneur and legal-tech investor, best known for founding inCase, which was acquired by The Access Group in 2024, and for leading Aequitas Legal, a boutique firm specialising in complex and serious personal injury claims. His role will focus on strategic growth, product development and operational scalability.

He said: “What stood out to me about The Legal Lexi was that it recognises the real-world pressures solicitors face. Transparency and client understanding are now central to regulatory and consumer expectations, but firms need practical tools that work in day-to-day practice.

“The platform has the potential to materially reduce disputes and complaints, while supporting solicitors in doing the right thing with confidence.�

Couple launch third business to tackle UK ‘succession crisis’

The post Lawyer founds platform to combat rising solicitor-client disputes appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

The Manchester-headquartered scaleup is an AI-powered contract lifecycle management provider with a growing presence in the United States.

It has offices in Boston and San Diego, and a new headquarters location in Manchester.

Alongside Maven Capital Partners, new investors Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes Private Equity, and existing investor YFM Equity Partners, also participated in the round. 

Summize helps in-house legal teams, and the entire business, automate and manage contracts with clarity and confidence. Its CLM connects teams and tools for maximum efficiency, working directly within Microsoft Word, Outlook, Teams, Slack, Salesforce and HubSpot. 

Customers include Revolut, AMC Networks, Sigma, Matillion and many US sports teams in the NBA, MLB and NFL. The firm has seen five consecutive years of 100% annual recurring revenue growth.

“We founded Summize to bring contract clarity to the entire business, and Maven, along with our additional investors, has been a key partner in supporting that mission,� said Tom Dunlop (pictured), CEO and co-founder. 

“Contracting shouldn’t be a bottleneck for growing midsize companies, so our goal is to help in-house legal teams use AI to reduce manual work and spend more time as strategic partners and business accelerators.�

The transaction includes a substantial new investment through Maven’s institutional buyout fund and a commitment from Maven Investor Partners, its deal-by-deal investment vehicle which enables experienced investors to access private equity opportunities. 

The investment represents the third investment completed by Maven’s UK Regional Buyout Fund II, which is actively making equity investments of up to £20m to support growth.

Northcoders reports tough 2025 amid company refocus

The transaction has enabled Maven to deliver a profitable partial realisation for its VCT investors of 3.7x the original investment, which includes the value of a retained equity stake. Following completion, Maven will remain the largest shareholder in Summize when aggregated across the participating funds.

Jeremy Thompson, partner, Maven Buyout Fund, said: “This investment highlights Maven’s long-standing commitment to support innovative, founder-led technology businesses with global potential. 

“Summize has progressed from an early-stage concept into a highly scalable SaaS platform with a growing international customer base. 

“We are delighted to lead this new investment in Summize at a pivotal point in its growth journey, and the opportunity to partner with experienced investor, Kennet Partners, who bring considerable US market expertise and B2B software specialism, will further strengthen the platform for future expansion.�

Manchester FinTech Powdr teams up with Tameside’s Red Rock

The post Maven-backed Summize raises another £40m to grow in US appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

Orbital raised the funds in a round led by Brighton Park Capital (BPC), a New York-based growth fund, with the investment supporting continued scaling on both sides of the Atlantic.

It will also fund product development aimed at creating a single, secure workspace for real estate legal work across the full lifecycle of an asset.

Founded in 2018 by Will Pearce and Ed Boulle, the business has positioned itself as the UK market leader in AI for real estate legal work – a specialised area which it argues has been largely overlooked by the broader industry. 

Its platform combines AI built for real estate law with mapping, spatial visualisation and real estate data, with the goal of automating the document-heavy review process in property transactions.

The company says this approach allows real estate legal work to move faster and with greater transparency, while also laying the foundations for more automated AI-driven processes in the future.

Orbital ended 2025 supporting 200,000 transactions annually across the UK and US, signalling early scale in a market where adoption is typically slow and trust requirements are high.

Its products are now used by hundreds of law firms across the AM Law 100 in the US and the UK’s Magic Circle, as well as by in-house legal teams, real estate developers, title companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs). 

The latest funding will also be used to expand the firm’s presence in the US following the opening of its New York office in 2025, with the company planning to double headcount and establish additional US hubs to strengthen its customer coverage.

Dave Richards MBE: Fronting a possible £250m Sheffield FC bid

Alongside Brighton Park Capital, the Series B also attracted backing from investors across both the legal and real estate sectors.

New investors in the round include REV, the venture capital arm of RELX, which owns LexisNexis Legal & Professional; The LegalTech Fund; Moderne Ventures; and Grosvenor Group, which is an existing Orbital customer.

Existing investors including JLL Spark, Outward and Seedcamp also participated.

The business, which also has a base in London, has now raised $75m to date.

“Real estate is, by far, the world’s largest asset class,� said Orbital CEO and co-founder, Will Pearce.

“Yet the legal work that underpins it remains slow, fragmented and largely manual: opaque work that in many cases hasn’t meaningfully changed since the 19th century. 

“Orbital is changing that with AI purpose-built for real estate, making transactions more transparent and reliable for all parties. This funding round brings together investors and operators who understand these challenges firsthand and share our conviction that the real estate legal category is ready for transformation. 

“With their support, we’re accelerating our US expansion and extending Orbital’s potential across the full real estate transaction lifecycle – fundamentally improving how work gets done for the professionals who operate within it, and for everyone who derives value from real estate.â€�

Kevin Magan, partner at Brighton Park Capital who will be joining the Orbital board, added: “We recognised immediately that Orbital is targeting a critical gap in the legal AI sector. 

“Real estate law is one of the most complex legal markets globally, yet it has remained dramatically under-automated. 

“Orbital’s focus on accuracy, real estate domain expertise, and real-world workflows positions them to define a new category in legal automation. 

“We are incredibly excited to partner with Orbital in this next stage of growth as they expand more aggressively into the US market.�

YFM exits Vuealta following sale to France-based Keyrus

The post Orbital raises £44m Series B round led by New York growth fund appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.

Ankar AI said it will use the funding to grow its team and expand further into the US, taking total funding to $24m.

The London-based business is positioning itself as an “operating system� for patents, arguing that while AI can help teams assess novelty, draft claims and evaluate prior art faster than ever, adoption has been held back by fragmented tools and a lack of trust in how AI is used in sensitive workflows. 

It says it brings the entire patent lifecycle into a single secure workflow, combining novelty assessment, drafting and prosecution so teams can complete work “in hours what once took weeks�.

The company is targeting a process that remains heavily manual. Patents can take up to 24 months to secure and often involve scattered Word documents, spreadsheets and emails, alongside older IP management systems. 

Its platform aims to replace this with a unified process, including instant novelty and prior-art analysis across more than 150m patent applications and 250m scientific publications.

Tech giant ABB makes swoop for Manchester tech firm IPEC

Security is central to its pitch, with patent workflows among the most confidential in enterprise environments. 

Co-founders Tamar Gomez and Wiem Gharbi previously built software at Palantir in Europe and the US, which the company says has shaped its approach to secure patent retrieval, claim-level reasoning, LLM governance and AI safety inside enterprise-controlled environments.

The fresh capital will also be used to double Ankar’s 20-person team, expand engineering, product and design, and grow its go-to-market organisation to support demand across Europe and the US.

“Invention is how we solve humanity’s biggest challenges, yet the systems that protect those ideas are decades out of date,� said Gomez.

“AI will redefine how global organisations innovate over the next five years, turning IP from a cost centre into a growth driver. 

“The companies that adopt Ankar now will shape the future of innovation.�

Gharbi added: “Patents sit at the intersection of deep technical knowledge and precise legal reasoning, and AI can finally unlock real leverage in that process. 

“Ankar gives professionals the analytical depth they’ve never had before, enabling stronger strategy and better protection. 

“Atomico shares our ambition to build the infrastructure behind the next generation of global innovation.�

Atom Bank opens new Newcastle HQ

The post Ex-Palantir figures raise £15m to expand AI platform in US appeared first on ÀϾÅÆ·²èCloud.