Legal technology startup Ivo has secured US$55 million in a Series B funding round, boosting its valuation to $530 million. Led by existing investor Blackbird, the round highlights strong confidence in the company's AI-powered contract review platform. This new capital is earmarked for significant team expansion and enhancing its enterprise-grade capabilities to meet growing demand.
Rapid Growth and Market Traction
The funding follows a period of explosive growth, with Ivo increasing its annual recurring revenue sixfold in just nine months. This success is mirrored by a 134 percent increase in its customer base and a 250 percent surge in adoption among Fortune 500 companies. Such rapid traction demonstrates strong market demand for efficient, AI-driven legal solutions.
A growing roster of enterprises, including Uber, Shopify, IBM, and Canva, now rely on Ivo's platform to streamline contract workflows. According to Uber's contract operations team, the tool was selected for its intuitive design, high accuracy, and robust confidentiality safeguards. This endorsement from industry leaders validates the platform's effectiveness in complex corporate environments.
A Founder's Vision for Legal Tech
The company's mission is rooted in the experience of co-founder and CEO Min-Kyu Jung, a former corporate lawyer. Frustrated with the tedious, manual processes of contract review, Jung taught himself to code to build a better solution. He founded Ivo in New Zealand in 2021 before relocating its headquarters to San Francisco.
Ivo maintains a strategic focus on serving in-house legal teams, a decision Jung says is fundamental to the company's direction. He emphasizes that corporate legal departments have distinct challenges compared to law firms, which shapes the product's design. This targeted approach allows Ivo to address the specific pain points of managing contracts within an organization.
Innovating Contract Intelligence
The platform offers a comprehensive solution for the entire contract lifecycle, from pre-signature review to post-signature analysis. Its Ivo Review feature assists lawyers with incoming agreements, while Ivo Intelligence transforms executed contracts into a searchable database. This dual capability allows teams to manage risk proactively and unlock data from existing agreements.
Addressing the critical need for accuracy, Ivo employs a sophisticated system that chains together hundreds of model calls for each contract. This multi-step process is designed to produce outputs that are both reliable and easily auditable by legal professionals. Jung compares the AI to a trustworthy junior lawyer whose work is consistently legible and dependable.
Strategic Expansion and Future Outlook
With the new funding, Ivo plans an aggressive expansion of its global team, aiming to more than triple its current headcount of over 60 employees. The company is actively hiring for key roles in engineering, product development, and legal expertise to support its growth. This investment in talent is crucial for scaling operations and continuing to innovate.
The strategic roadmap includes significant international expansion, with new offices planned for New York and London to better serve its global clientele. This move will strengthen the company's presence in key markets and support its goal of deepening its enterprise capabilities. The investment signals Ivo's ambition to become a global standard for contract intelligence.
This $55 million investment marks a pivotal moment for Ivo, solidifying its position as a frontrunner in the competitive legal tech landscape. By focusing on amplifying human judgment, the company has earned the trust of sophisticated legal teams worldwide. As lead investor Blackbird noted, Ivo is defining its category by consistently exceeding the high bar for accuracy.