Legislate has raised £3 million in funding to make startup contracts queryable.
Using its patented knowledge graph technology, Legislate provides companies with ontologies of legal terms, allowing anyone in the business to semantically search for information across an entire database of contracts.
The round was led by Parkwalk Advisors, with participation from Oxford Capital and several high-profile angel investors.
The company, which until now has focused on creating a solution for startups and scaleups, is using the funds to double down on UK sales and prepare for international expansion in 2023.
“For scaling companies, keeping track of terms across hundreds or thousands of contracts is a challenge that creeps up on you,” said Charles Brecque, Legislate founder.
“Searching for basic information like contract start and end dates, or nuances in confidentiality terms across entire databases of contracts is painfully manual, or impossible. Before working with us, we know that some of our customers would spend weeks doing this.
“By allowing companies to create their own ontologies of terms and making them semantically searchable, we enable anyone in that business to search for information in contracts, even if they don’t have a legal background.
“That’s incredibly powerful for scaling companies where business teams need to review terms across hundreds of contracts quickly to understand exposure to risks.”
With Legislate’s technology, contracts are first made machine-readable, this subsequently allows all business users to easily compare, create, query, and sign every contract without the need for outside legal involvement.
In 2022 the company announced it had been granted its second US patent for semantic document generation, further enhancing its patented knowledge graph technology – ultimately benefiting Legislate’s customers.
Customers primarily use Legislate for employment, consultancy, internal contracts, and terms of business agreements.
Claire Pardo from Parkwalk Advisors added: “Legislate has developed a unique solution to simplify contracting for SMEs and mid-market businesses in a way that scales.
“We’re confident that they are well-positioned to take a significant portion of the market. Their focus on making contracts machine-readable is particularly impressive and we believe it has the potential to be a game-changer in the industry.”