Wordsmith AI has raised $25m in series A funding led by Index Ventures. The new cash will be used to support its aim of ‘embedding fleets of AI agents into corporations and training teams to wield them’. See AL In-depth Interview with CEO, Ross McNairn, below. Their offering is however not just for lawyers, but is also there to ‘support sales, procurement, and HR’, they said.
The Scotland-based business, which has customers already in the shape of Trustpilot, Remote.com, and Deliveroo, is very much focused on corporates. The company added that it is recording strong revenue growth across the UK and US, and is set to open offices in both London and New York later this year. They are also going to launch a ‘Wordsmith Legal Enablement Academy’, to help with training its customers.
On top of its offering of AI agents, Wordsmith previously told AL in January this year that it provided:
‘Advanced reporting tools: Analyze thousands of contracts in minutes to uncover compliance gaps, contract risks, and other critical insights. Bespoke reports can be tailored to meet specific business needs.
Enablement & training: Wordsmith AI provides unique training programs to help lawyers integrate AI into their workflows, minimizing errors and maximizing efficiency.
Flexible support: Businesses can operate independently or collaborate with Wordsmith’s team of lawyers for verification and customized reporting.’
And the bit about training is key for them. The company added: ‘Wordsmith invests significantly in training and upskilling legal professionals, enabling them to harness the full potential of its platform. This marks a broader generational shift in the legal labour market, as professionals adapt to leverage AI and take on more strategic, high-impact roles.’
Plus, it’s worth underlining the third bullet point above, which shows that they’re not just in the ‘software fire-and-forget’ business, but want to put their own team’s time into deeply engaging with clients. Of course, that then creates a new challenge: most software companies want to scale fast by selling software, not having to focus on consulting-style services. But, as many legal tech companies find, it can sometimes be impossible to just sell software on its own – engagement with the clients to help them get the most out of the tools is often essential. And in this case they’re offering ‘verification’ services as well, i.e. quality assurance on the outputs.
Commenting on their continued investment in Wordsmith, Hannah Seal, Partner, Index Ventures, said: ‘This is about reshaping enterprise operations, not just supporting legal teams. We’re excited to back Ross and the Wordsmith team as they define a new category at the intersection of law, technology and AI.’
Plus, here is a short video about the raise.
And now the AL In-depth Interview with CEO Ross McNairn (pictured above), who previously helped to scale three tech unicorns, as Chief Product and Technology Officer at TravelPerk, VP of Product at letgo, and Head of Product at Skyscanner.
First, congrats. What does this investment mean to you personally?
Thank you! This investment is particularly meaningful to me because it brings together my background in both law and software engineering. After 12 years away from the legal profession, returning to help drive this transformation feels deeply personal. I’m passionate about our mission, to train a generation of legal engineers having been through this journey myself.
It’s rewarding to unite both sides of my career in this mission and to have gathered such an incredible blend of lawyers and engineers to join me on this journey.
The focus here seems to be on agents? Why?
Our focus on agents represents an evolution from simply boosting individual lawyer productivity to enabling broader, supervised collaboration across entire organisations. With improved reliability and transparency in AI, lawyers can now confidently share and scale these tools within their teams, making legal workflows more efficient and impactful than ever before.
Are you seeing real change among inhouse lawyers now when it comes to AI adoption?
Absolutely. We’re witnessing a significant shift, with new roles emerging on legal teams dedicated to leveraging and deploying AI. Once adoption takes hold, we see remarkable orchestration – legal teams are able to instantly review contracts, respond to negotiations, handle security questionnaires, and support sales with NDAs, all at unprecedented speed. This on-demand capability is accelerating business operations across the board.
How do you see the overall market now for legal AI? How is it changing and how will Wordsmith carve out its own niche?
The legal AI market is evolving rapidly. While many providers aim to serve everyone or focus on law firms, Wordsmith is uniquely positioned to enable in-house legal teams and more critically the business they are powering. Our approach is about accelerating the entire business, not just the legal function, and that’s resonating strongly with our clients.
When a GC starts to get praised by their peers in the C-suite for the impact their legal AI is having on deal cycles, procurement backlogs, time to offer in HR, they start to become incredibly happy.
How many staff are you now and what are the growth plans?
We’re currently a team of 35 and expect to grow to between 80 and 90 by year-end. Our plans include opening several new offices across Europe and the US to support our expanding client base.
Thanks Ross and congrats on the raise.
You can find more about Wordsmith here.
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Legal Innovators California conference, San Francisco, June 11 + 12
If you’re interested in the cutting edge of legal AI and innovation – and where we are all heading – then come along to Legal Innovators California, in San Francisco, June 11 and 12, where speakers from the leading law firms, inhouse teams, and tech companies will be sharing their insights and experiences as to what is really happening.
We already have an incredible roster of companies to hear from. This includes: &AI, Legora, Harvey, StructureFlow, Ivo, Flatiron Law Group, PointOne, Centari, LexisNexis, eBrevia, Legatics, Knowable, Draftwise, newcode.AI, Riskaway, Aracor, SimpleClosure and more.
Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, Baker McKenzie, Gunderson, Ropes & Grey, A&O Shearman and many other leading law firms will also be taking part.
See you all there!
More information and tickets here.
P.S. there will also be a Legal Innovators New York conference this November 19 + 20 ! See here.
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