LegalForce Raises $101M in Series D Led by SoftBank, Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital

LegalForce Inc., a Japan-based provider of the contract review platform LegalForce and the AI-enabled contract management suite LegalForce Cabinet, announced to have received a $101 million fundraise in a series D round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital.

The funds will be invested in accelerating recruitment, research and development, and sales and marketing  in order to realize the company’s mission of managing “all contract risks anytime, anywhere”.

Kentaro Matsui, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers said: “Facing a shortage of lawyers and increasing pressure for operational efficiencies, corporations and law firms in Japan are seeking innovative solutions to support their legal operations. Through its software platform, LegalForce uses AI and machine learning to support the end-to-end lifecycle of contract management, thereby reducing workload and improving the accuracy of contract reviews. We are excited to partner with Nozomu Tsunoda, Masataka Ogasawara, and the LegalForce team to support their goal of using AI to improve the quality and efficiency of legal operations.”

“As a leader and exceptional innovator of legal-tech SaaS companies, LegalForce enables companies to digitize the legal process and radically transform how they contract. We look forward to supporting LegalForce to continue their growth and scale impressively” said Rock Wang, Managing Director at Sequoia China.

Stephanie Hui, Global co-head of Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management added: “A digital revolution is taking place in the legal market with the embrace and application of technology by law professionals to increase productivity and mitigate risk. Through its proprietary AI software and sectoral expertise, LegalForce is positioned to capitalize on and lead that disruptive transformation in Japan.”

LegalForce specializes on a natural language processing technology to automatically look up a predefined checklist by contract types, instantly detecting risky or missing clauses. Launched in April 2019, the product has grown to be used by over 2,000 customers including companies and law firms, according to LegalForce.