Editorial note: After publishing this article Robin AI released a press release stating that the amount raised was $26m (£20.6m).
UK legaltech Robin AI has raised £18.1m, according to Companies House filings taken from Beauhurst.
The round, which Robin AI confirmed to Sifted, featured Airbnb and Stripe backer Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.
Temasek’s Ming You See, director of early-stage investments, joined Robin AI as a director at the start of November 2023, shortly after the startup filed the raise. Sifted reached out to Temasek and Ming for comment.
It comes less than a year after Robin AI’s $10.5m Series A in February 2023, which was led by Taavet Hinrikus’ VC firm Plural and featured Monzo founder-turned-angel investor Tom Blomfield.
What does Robin AI do?
Robin AI is a software startup that uses generative AI trained on legal documents to help companies draft and edit contracts.
It claims the software can reduce legal fees by up to 75%, and also employs 30 in-house lawyers that "supervise" the model and encourage it to suggest amends.
Customers include law firm Clifford Chance and impact investor Blue Earth Capital, who pay an annual licence for access to its software platform, as well as ad hoc charges on a per contract basis when there’s a Robin AI human lawyer involved for more specific needs.
It also partnered with Anthropic — the world’s second-best funded AI startup — at the start of 2023, to integrate its large language model (LLM) ‘Claude’ into its product.
Legaltech market
Europe’s legaltech market had a slightly more positive year than the broader tech market in 2023. The sector brought in $737m last year, a 15% dip compared to 2022. European tech as a whole saw funding dip by 30% in 2023, according to Dealroom.
The legaltech industry has been buoyed by the rapid rise of AI. Startups, including Robin AI, are promising to save companies time and money by using the tech to streamline legal processes.
Robin AI investor Temasek, a fund owned by the Singaporean government, took part in six European tech deals in 2023. That was down from 13 in 2022, according to data from Dealroom. The fund’s reduced deal count is in line with a broader dip in sovereign wealth fund activity in 2023.
Other European companies backed by Temasek include metaverse startup Improbable, healthtech companies Alan and Oura and fintech SumUp.
