Mishcon de Reya has invested in Ctrl AI, a new legal ops agentic AI startup for disputes and doc analysis. It was co-founded by Anup Kollanethu, who has been a strategic adviser to the firm and was once CEO of DWF Managed Services, plus Nicky Pearson, who worked at Freshfields for five years.
Ctrl AI ‘harnesses the power of agentic AI to transform how legal teams handle data-intensive tasks and high-volume activities in areas such as regulated disputes, real estate services and commercial operations,’ the company explained.
‘Our vision is to redefine operating practices with agentic AI, helping [inhouse] teams unlock value and drive impact’, they added.
Sounds interesting. So what does it do? There are two main focuses so far:
Ctrl Disputes – ‘this is an AI-powered platform to assess legal cases using evidence and playbooks, recommending case strategy and drafting relevant documentation.
- Ensures efficient and consistent assessment of claims
- Reviews evidence quickly to assess relevance and validity
- Suggests optimal remedial actions based on the facts of the case and your company playbook
- Recommends monetary values to be assigned to the claim
- Generates a case timeline to highlight key events
- Empowers case handlers to amend and propose alternative solutions
- Facilitates rapid interventions and adaptations when rules or regulations change.’
And, Ctrl Intelligence, which is ‘an AI-powered platform to extract valuable data and insights from large volumes of documentation, enabling smart decision-making and operational savings.
- Extracts key data across multiple documents and formats
- Helps to simplify large volumes of information
- Presents data in easily consumable formats providing useful insights
- Identifies issues, risks and next steps based on customer requests
- Supports customers in taking action to produce reports, amend documents and resolve issues.’
Kollanethu, CEO and Co-Founder of Ctrl AI, commented: ‘Our goal is to equip enterprise legal departments and their stakeholders in operations with tools that fundamentally improve their day-to-day operations. Mishcon’s investment validates our vision and supports our pursuit of building solutions that deliver measurable value, speed, and clarity to in-house teams navigating complex legal landscapes.’
James Libson, Managing Partner of Mishcon, added: ‘Our investment in Ctrl AI reflects our belief in the transformative potential of advanced AI solutions for the legal market. We see enormous value in enabling legal teams to become more data-driven, efficient, and strategic.’
Kollanethu previously worked in several legal ops roles, including as CEO of DWF’s Managed Services, and also at EY. Meanwhile Pearson was most recently at Liberty Global and worked in Freshfields’ Manchester office in a senior legal ops role.
It’s not the first startup that Mishcon has invested in, previously they backed Kato, a commercial leasing platform co-founded by real estate partner, Nick Kirby. They have also invested in Draftwise and Thirdfort over the years, among others.
Is this a big deal?
What makes this startup stand out is the legal ops expertise – and that means they really understand the workflows they’re addressing.
Agentic AI is becoming more mainstream every minute. Things are moving very quickly now. So, aside from delivering high accuracy, how can legal tech companies stand out when it comes to agentic AI? The answer: really understand the intricacies of the workflows the agents are part of.
We have seen this happening now in PE fund formation, see Smart Esq, and also patent disputes work with &AI (in both cases see the Artificial Lawyer stories).
I.e. while the general ability to leverage agentic AI via foundation models increases, what lawyers need are super-specific, highly-modelled workflows that mimic specialised actions.
So, an agentic AI startup focused primarily on the experiences of those working in legal ops for inhouse teams is very interesting.
Congrats to the team and good to see Mishcon is still focused on legal tech development.
You can find out more here.