Ivo raises USD $55 million to grow AI contract tools

The AI legal technology startup Ivo has raised US$55 million in a Series B funding round led by Blackbird, following a period of rapid growth in customers and revenue for its contract intelligence software.

The round also saw participation from Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, and Icehouse Ventures. Ivo stated that the investment follows a year in which the company increased its annual recurring revenue by 500% and expanded its total customer base by 134%.

Ivo stated that it has expanded adoption within Fortune 500 companies by 250% since its previous funding round. The company also reported a fivefold increase in valuation over the past nine months.

Originally founded in New Zealand and established in Sydney, the business subsequently moved its headquarters to San Francisco. Ivo has indicated that it now expects to expand its operations in the UK.

Contract focus

Ivo provides software tailored for in-house legal and contracting teams, positioning its product suite around contract review and contract library intelligence. The company noted that contracts frequently contain complex operational and commercial details that organisations often struggle to extract at scale.

The platform features two core components: Ivo Review, which focuses on streamlining and automating contract review workflows, and Ivo Intelligence, which is designed to search across a company's entire library of agreements to identify key data points and hidden connections between documents.

Ivo said customers report saving up to 75% of the time typically required for manual contract review. It said the product standardises legal positions using playbooks built and implemented by lawyers. The company said this approach improves consistency in contract review across large and distributed teams.

Ivo said its customer list includes IBM, Uber, Canva, Shopify, Pinterest, Quora, BILL.com and Reddit. The company also named Atlassian and CDW as users of its software.

Customer uptake

Ivo said it plans to use the new capital for product development and scaling across existing and new clients. The company said it will deepen its work with the "hundreds of organizations" already using the platform.

Min-Kyu Jung, CEO and Co-founder, described the company's focus on contract workflows and insight extraction from agreements.

"Our goal has always been to make interacting with contracts fast, accurate, and enjoyable," said Min-Kyu Jung, CEO and Co-founder, Ivo. "Every key relationship in a business is defined by an agreement, yet most organizations struggle to extract the insights inside them. Our focus is to give in-house teams a trustworthy solution that helps them work faster and gives them visibility into their contracts that was previously impossible."

Uber is among the customers cited by the company. Kate Gardner described how the company assessed Ivo's software.

"Uber selected Ivo because it was intuitive to use, demonstrated a high level of accuracy, could work in multiple languages, and met its confidentiality requirements," said Gardner. "Furthermore, the Ivo team was highly responsive to Uber's needs."

CDW also provided a comment on its use of Ivo's tools. The company referenced both contract review and intelligence products.

"CDW values its partnership with Ivo whose commitment to advancing legal technology aligns with our strategic priorities. Ivo's Contract Review Tool and Intelligence Tool streamline contract analysis and enhance decision-making through AI-driven insights. Our collaboration continues to support the integration of AI processes into our legal workflows," said Michel.

Investor view

Blackbird, which led the funding, said it sees demand among in-house legal teams for tools that match existing ways of working. James Palmer pointed to product accuracy and customer traction as factors behind the investment.

"In-house legal teams demand products that are deeply accurate and aligned to how they work. The most sophisticated teams are incredibly selective about the tools they trust," said James Palmer, Principal, Blackbird. "Ivo's traction with some of the world's best companies shows it consistently exceeds that bar. With exceptional product execution and an uncompromising quality bar, we believe Ivo is defining and leading the category."

Ivo said it will continue building its platform around faster contract review and broader visibility across contract libraries, as it expands into additional markets including the UK.