Onit Buys Bodhala Spend Analytics Pioneer

Onit, the enterprise workflow platform, has acquired Bodhala, the NLP-powered legal spend analytics company. It’s further evidence of a red hot legal tech M&A market.

Last year Bodhala bagged $10m in fresh investment amid the depths of the pandemic, with then a view to grow as an independent company.

Bodhala will operate as an independent subsidiary of Onit. The company represents the third acquisition for Onit in less than a year. In November 2020, Onit acquired legal AI innovator McCarthyFinch and then document automation leader AXDRAFT 30 days later. Onit also acquired SimpleLegal, a modern legal operations software provider, in May 2019.

The acquisition creates ‘the most complete enterprise legal management solutions on the market, allowing corporate legal departments to evolve analytics into actionable intelligence to optimise outside counsel spend’ the company said.

Bodhala applies machine learning and AI to help companies source outside counsel at competitive and market-driven rates.

‘A decade ago, Onit reinvented enterprise legal management by showing how workflow and process automation could drive useful and easily adopted best practices. Today, we occupy the forefront of business process automation, AI and legal business intelligence. Our vision for the next wave of business transformation has legal departments running their operations based on actionable data,’ said Eric Elfman, CEO and co-founder of Onit.

‘The acquisition of Bodhala, combined with our enterprise legal management and AI-enabled technology platforms, gives our customers the power to exponentially multiply the savings and value associated with their legal spend.’

‘We founded Bodhala with the belief that great legal talent should come at market-driven prices, and we’re incredibly proud to have built the most powerful solution on the market for legal spend analytics,’ said Raj Goyle, CEO of Bodhala. ‘We are thrilled to continue to ride this rocket ship with Eric and his team. By combining with Onit, we will be part of a family of solutions that addresses the full spectrum of corporate legal business needs. We look forward to helping legal departments work faster and spend smarter.’