Robin AI Very Close To Securing Rescue Buyer

Robin AI, the troubled contract review company, is understood to be very close to securing a rescue buyer after at least 10 approaches were made to it. A recent tax demand from UK authorities is also understood not to be a barrier to any deal, Artificial Lawyer can reveal, according to market insiders.

Moreover, it’s understood that Robin AI, which is based in the UK and has an office in New York, ‘is not insolvent….and will not be wound up’, at least not yet……with the likely sale of the business to one of its multiple suitors ensuring that any outstanding debts are paid off.

The company recently ran into funding issues after not securing a new round, then listed itself on an insolvency website as it sought to rapidly cut costs and lay off staff. It has since been looking for a buyer.

Artificial Lawyer understands that multiple companies in the legal tech field, and perhaps others outside of it, have made approaches; with any concrete deal likely to be confirmed in the coming days – market grapevines have told this site.

This is very good news for the company, founded by CEO Richard Robinson, who was previously a lawyer at Clifford Chance and was quick to see how an ALSP + legal AI approach might work for contract review.

It had around 200 staff at its peak. They have however faced a tough market for their offering and the loss of key team members, including their co-founder.

As to the specific buyer, that is yet to be confirmed by the market, but it appears that short of something very unexpected happening, that Robin AI will find a new home inside a much larger business within the next week or so.

How many staff will follow to the new home is not known, nor if the brand will continue. But, those are perhaps issues that will have to follow the key one, which is finalising a sale.

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See previous coverage here, as AL shared the news of the developments at Robin AI.

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P.S. many have made the connection between this company’s challenges and the wider market perhaps facing a bubble. AL would say that the issues at Robin AI – although made worse by intense competition – are not primarily driven by the macro-picture of AI investment, which is still largely very robust. In short, this is not a canary, but rather an outlier, albeit it’s not the only legal tech company in the market that will likely face funding challenges. The key as ever is to see the wider context.