Legal software company Clio drops $1B on law data giant vLex
On Monday, Clio, a 17-year-old Canadian Law Firm Management Software Company, announced that it has agreed to acquire VLEX, a 26-year-old platform for legal data intelligence, in a $ 1 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The announcement comes about a year after the huge $ 900 million financing round, which almost doubled the appreciation of the British Columbia company in 2021 to $ 3 billion of $ 900 million.
Vlex, which was largely piled up until it was purchased by Private Equity company Oakley Capital in 2022, is according to Jack Newton, CEO and founder of Clio.
Harvey, the AI-Native Legal Technical Startup, tried to buy Vlex a year ago, but the acquisition did not come together, As reported by the information Last July.
VLEX is a valuable ownership because the database with legal documents can significantly improve AI models for lawyers.
“Data is one of the few defensible competitive canals in the long term that a company can have in space,” Newton told WAN.
VLEX competes with the legal database of Thomson Reuters and Lexisnexis. The acquisition comes shortly after Harvey one Partnership with LexisNexisFocused on enriching Harvey’s AI with lexisnexis data.
With the acquisition of VLEX, Clio stops, which offers law firms of periods, invoicing and electronic payment tools, now effectively in the practice of the law itself.
Vlex Vincent has built in recent years, an AI model that was built on top of the legal content database of the company.
“AI is going to stimulate a convergence of what historically different categories of software has been: the lawsuit and practice of the law,” said Newton. He added that Clio’s clients in the small and medium -sized law firm segment now have access to Vincent’s AI options.
In addition to announcing plans to acquire Vlex, Clio said that it has reached $ 300 million in annual return income (ARR).
