Wordsmith, an AI-based legal assistant platform, announced it has raised $5 million to transform the legal industry and unleash a new generation of hyper-skilled legal professionals. Index Ventures led this seed funding, which was joined by General Catalyst and angel investors, including Skyscanner founder Gareth Williams.
This investment is a sign of how applied AI is rapidly augmenting and enabling professional services – which is a shift as profound as the transition to digital devices and word processing 40 years ago.
Wordsmith is addressing a critical problem faced by in-house legal teams: the overwhelming volume of routine tasks that leave lawyers struggling to keep up with the demands of the business. From confirming policy details for contract analysis and complex financing, the demand for human judgment and oversight consequences are high, but many of the outputs are repeatable. And Wordsmith customers get 90% of the through-put of a world-class lawyer and a 99% cost reduction versus going to a law firm all within a minute.
Wordsmith was launched last year by Ross McNairn, Volodymyr Giginiak and Robbie Falkenthal. And after training as a lawyer, McNairn sold his first startup to Skyscanner in 2016 and most recently was Chief Product and Technology Officer at Travelperk. CTO Giginiak, one of the first engineers at Meta in London who worked for a decade in roles at Facebook and Instagram, was helping to implement anti-drone technology for the Ukrainian army before joining Wordsmith. Robbie Falkenthal, COO, is a qualified lawyer who has previously held senior roles at KPMG and Travelperk.
KEY QUOTES:
“AI is not about replacing professionals. It’s about making them better at their jobs. Just as the word processor didn’t replace writers, but instead made them more productive, Wordsmith is ushering in a new era of AI-assisted professional services.”
– Wordsmith CEO Ross McNairn
“Wordsmith is at the vanguard of a fundamental shift in how professional services are delivered. It’s not about replacement but augmentation. By harnessing the power of generative AI, they’re not only transforming the legal industry, but also paving the way for a future in which AI-assisted professionals can provide better, faster, and more affordable services to their clients.”
– Hannah Seal, the partner at Index Ventures who led the investment
