Ivo, a legaltech startup founded by a New Zealand lawyer and engineer, recently secured $16 million in Series A funding, signaling the investor confidence in its potential to transform legal work.
Ivo’s AI technology tackles one of the most time-consuming tasks for in-house legal teams: contract review and negotiation. And while it is by no means the only such app in this space it has shown impressive results for legal clients, helping to win the latest funding round.
The software scans draft agreements, identifies potential issues, and suggests revisions that align with a company’s standards and risk tolerance.
This AI-driven approach offers several key benefits including a dramatic reduction in time to review contracts, targeted redlining to provide accuracy and uniform terminology to maintain consistency in the contract review process, making only necessary changes.
Since its commercial launch in April 2023, Ivo has already attracted over 150 corporate customers, including big names like Canva, Fonterra, and Weightwatchers.
One client, Quora, reported that Ivo cut their average NDA approval time from four days to just two, with initial reviews dropping from 11 hours to five minutes.
The Team Behind Ivo
Ivo was founded by New Zealand entrepreneurs Min-Kyu Jung, (pictured) a former corporate lawyer at leading corporate law firm Bell Gully, and Jacob Duligall, an ex-Xero software engineer who worked for the New Zealand-based accounting software app.
Their combined legal and tech expertise has been crucial in developing an AI solution that understands the nuances of contract review.
Although neither founder has commented on the value of the company – and their own investment interests – it is clearly set to make the couple many millions.
Ivo had to overcome a significant technical hurdle and as a former corporate lawyer Jung lacked coding experience and did the seemingly obvious: he taught himself over just two months.
They also spoke with hundreds of professionals to better understand the issues and pain points required to make a top-end, high performing, trusted legal app.
The two founders also brought onboard another former Xero engineer, Jacob Duligall, as co-founder and CTO of the company.
The requirements for the contract software required an appreciation for the more subtle approach taken by lawyers in contract review and preparation, going beyond mere automation.
As with any AI system handling sensitive legal documents, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations and maintaining robust security measures was crucial to the successful development of the product.
Ivo had to obtain SOC 2 Type II certification to demonstrate its commitment to security and operational excellence
With the fresh funding, Ivo plans to expand its team and enhance its offerings. The company has already released a new search agent that allows legal teams to effortlessly search and generate reports across their entire contract portfolio, regardless of where documents are stored.
As AI continues to evolve, Ivo is well-positioned to lead the charge in modernizing legal work. By automating tedious tasks, the company aims to free up lawyers to focus on higher-value strategic work, ultimately making business collaborations smoother and more efficient.
