The latest data from financial advisers Raymond James paints a positive picture for VC funding into legal tech compared to the first half of 2023, with more investment going into the sector, and more M&A deals as well. See here:
- H1 2023 funding – £244m
- H1 2023 fundraises – 68
- H1 2024 funding – £430m
- H1 2024 fundraises – 118
Also, there are more legal tech M&A deals, with 35 in H1 2024 (i.e. Jan to June) compared to 28 in H1 2023.
This shows an increasingly positive picture, even though money remains expensive with interest rates high on both sides of the Atlantic. When it comes to where the deals are happening – genAI plays a big part. It’s not always ‘genAI-first’ startups, but often LLM technology is a key aspect of the business.
Here are some of the deals in H1 2024 that Raymond James took special notice of:
Now, before we all start opening the champagne, to put this in context when compared to 2021 things still look weaker.
Back in 2021 – a good year for legal tech investments – we saw in Q2 and Q3 (so not an exact correspondence, but close) 107 deals, but with a value of £1.38 billion. Although, that figure includes RocketLawyer’s $223m Series E, and Verbit $157m Series D, so may be a little bit skewed.
As noted, expensive money is clearly a key reason for the lower totals compared to 2021. So, if we take that into account, plus the investments into legal tech startups with strong genAI chops, then it’s on balance a decent picture.
Of course, year-on-year changes, i.e. the improvement from 2023 to 2024, have to be taken with some caution. There are US Presidential elections coming up, the war in Ukraine continues, inflation and thus high interest rates persist – and will remain like that for some time, despite some small improvements, there are also some market fears that GenAI may not be changing the world quite as fast as expected, (e.g. see the yo-yo share price of Nvidia). So, one swallow does not make a summer. But, it certainly helps.
One thing is clear: legal genAI is here to stay, it’s helping to attract investment, and the use of such tools will only grow. So, on balance this is good news for those investing, looking to sell, and those seeking a new funding round.
For its part Raymond James states in their advisory report:
‘Since the last edition of this report covering 2H2023, venture / growth funding activity in 1H2024 in the Legal Tech & Services Sector has continued to increase year-on-year, supported by the rapid rollout of GenAI across the practice of law, which continues to attract significant interest from venture & growth capital investors.
Whilst M&A activity has remained relatively stable throughout 1H2024 compared to levels in 2H2023, 2H2024 is anticipated to see an increase in M&A volumes, as large Legal Tech consolidators and Private Equity investor increasingly appreciate the wide-ranging use cases and positive impact GenAI can have on the legal profession.
However, the rise of GenAI also ignited debates amongst industry specialists on how to overcome associated challenges, such as:
- Ethical concerns around the use of GenAI in legal requiring consistent guidelines for the implementation and use of such tools.
- Introduction of uniform standards and benchmarks evaluating the precision and accuracy of GenAI tools.
- The impact of GenAI on the billable hours model and adoption of alternative billing approaches (e.g. fixed fees).’
See their website for the full report.