SpotDraft, an AI-driven contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform built for in-house legal teams in India, has raised $54 million in its Series B round of funding led by Vertex Growth Singapore and Trident Partners.
Existing investors Xeed VC, Arkam Ventures, Prosus Ventures, and Premji Invest have also participated in this round.
SpotDraft manages many aspects of contracting, including AI-assisted redlining, e-signatures, intelligent contract repositories, third-party papers, clickwrap agreements, and more.
Long working days are the bane of the legal profession, given how laborious it is to draft and read dense legal contracts or do legal research. In India, this has added to the burden on the judicial system, leading to legal disputes dragging on for years.
However, several venture-backed legaltech startups have emerged in India in recent years looking to disrupt this sector using the power of technology.
Legaltech startups deploy artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to improve various aspects of the judicial process, such as developing online platforms for legal research, creating software to automate legal document preparation, and offering online legal services. This has piqued the interest of investors.
According to Tracxn, there are 911 legal tech startups in India, including SpotDraft, SimpliContract, and Leegality. Of these, 85 startups are funded, with 16 having secured Series A+ funding.
For SpotDraft, this funding comes two years after it raised $26 million in its Series A round in March 2023, anchored by Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro chairman Azim Premji.
Shashank Bijapur, an alumnus of Harvard Law School; and Madhav Bhagat, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon, co-founded SpotDraft in 2017. Now SpotDraft has over 250 employees across its offices in Bengaluru and New York.
“Apart from market expansion and talent growth, we’re strongly committed to deepening the use of AI in the product to help legal teams unlock efficiencies and drive innovation,” said Bijapur, CEO of SpotDraft.
The company has raised $105 million in 11 funding rounds and had a revenue of Rs 47.1 crore as of March 31, 2024, per Tracxn.
