Litera Owner Hg + Anthropic Invest in ‘AI Transformation’ Venture

Hg, the massive private equity fund that owns Litera and has $110 billion in assets under management, along with LLM giant Anthropic, plus some angel investors, are to invest in a new ‘AI transformation company’ to ‘advance responsible AI adoption and product innovation’, especially in Europe. The move comes ahead of Anthropic’s planned IPO.

Hg and Anthropic have been growing increasingly close. In 2024 they started to get chummy via joint hackathons and AI training projects. Earlier this year they held a major event together focused on engineering teams, and in September they announced that Anthropic would support Hg’s own ‘Catalyst’ incubator – along with deeper use of Claude across Hg’s portfolio companies.

Note: After some digging it’s now understood that Hg does not hold any stake in Anthropic – yet. However, once the LLM-maker goes public Hg can presumably buy as much of the stock as it can get its hands on, if it wished to. So, working together in a way that increases the use of Claude is sure to help that share price….!

And as to Litera, they made no mention of how the broad legal tech platform might potentially be part of this. But, Hg is so vast in terms of its interests, Litera may not even come into it at all. But, presumably if they really engage with large corporates, for example, then legal uses of AI will come up as part of any transformation….? We shall see.

— Legal Innovators UK is this week on Nov 4 and 5 —

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So, back to this new venture, which they are a bit vague about in terms of its actual structure. For example, it’s not clear if this is ‘formed’ by these two giants, or it will be created by a third party and they’re just investing in it very heavily. They also don’t mention its brand name, or who will be leading it.

It’s possible they’re not saying that yet as they haven’t totally decided.

They explained: ‘The new company, which will formally launch later this year, will be an independent entity that works with organizations to advance AI adoption and AI-native product build, moving beyond pilots to measurable operational impact. The company will build on Claude, with forward deployed engineers, helping businesses move beyond simply adopting AI to building real, defensible advantage from it.’

Interestingly, they are super-focused on Europe. Perhaps this is because the US is already so well served in this area?

They added: ‘The company will shape the organizations that will define Europe’s AI era – supporting businesses with distinctive IP, deep domain expertise and long-standing customer relationships that operate across a uniquely complex landscape of languages and regulatory regimes.’

Steve Batchelor and JB Brian, Co-CEOs of Hg, commented: ‘This builds on Hg’s early conviction in the transformational power of AI. We’re delighted to announce our investment in this new company and look forward to further advancing Europe’s position within the global AI ecosystem.’

Steve Corfield, Head of Global Business Development and Partnerships at Anthropic, concluded: ‘Businesses are looking for experienced teams to help them put Claude to work. We’re proud to invest in companies like this as they grow to meet that need.’

Is this a big deal?

Well, it’s certainly curious. Hg is an investor first and foremost, and a private equity one at that. I.e. its ultimate goal is to buy assets with relatively low valuations, do some reworking of their business model with maybe some additional roll-up activity, and then flip them for a much higher valuation via an improved multiple. But, this is a new venture, it appears, and a services one as well.

What is the ultimate goal here? That is unclear, at least to this site. One possibility is that this project is primarily a ‘stalking horse’ for future investments, rather than solely intended to be for forward deployed consulting and engineering.

So, perhaps this is a sort of combo effort: Hg arrives hand-in-hand with a big AI company via this transformation venture, they get to know businesses that are transforming with AI; then Hg can spot good future investments; and then it can swoop in and buy them? Meanwhile, Anthropic helps to spread the gospel of Claude among many large European companies, perhaps even larger law firms as well? Hmmm…..? But, this is just speculation.

Or maybe the new AI consulting company is really the primary asset here, and they will later flip that?

Let’s see. All AL can be sure of is that private equity funds, whether Hg or any other, don’t do anything unless there is a prospect of a really major return on investment. Getting deeply into organisations via a new intermediary under the premise of helping with AI, thus could be a smart strategy for them. Either way, it will help to keep them at the cutting edge of what’s happening in relation to AI, as the technology steadily transforms the global economy.

More about Hg here.

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Legal Innovators UK is this week on Nov 4 and 5

Legal Innovators UK is this week on Nov 4 and 5 at the Minster Building near the Tower of London, and then Legal Innovators New York is on Nov 17 and 18 in Midtown at a great new venue – Quorum by Convene. Looking forward to chairing both. Going to be lots to explore together, that’s for sure!

Here are the express ticket registrations so you can get your complimentary passes super-fast.

To pick up your UK tickets, please follow the link below. Complimentary passes are for those working inside law firms and within corporate legal teams.