Ivo Raises $55 Million Series B at $355 Million Valuation as Contract Review AI Drives 500% Revenue Growth Amid Legal Tech Boom

Ivo, an AI-powered contract intelligence platform for legal and business teams, has raised $55 million in Series B funding at a $355 million valuation, the company announced Tuesday. The round was led by existing investor Blackbird with participation from new investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, and Icehouse Ventures, reflecting surging demand for legal AI automation amid rising contract volumes and stretched in-house resources.

The San Francisco-headquartered startup, founded in New Zealand by CEO Min-Kyu Jung and Jacob Duligall, reported explosive growth metrics including 500% annual recurring revenue increase, 134% expansion in total customers, and 250% growth in Fortune 500 adoption since its previous funding round. The company serves enterprise clients including Uber, Shopify, Atlassian, Reddit, Canva, IBM, Pinterest, Quora, BILL.com, and CDW.

Ivo's platform addresses accuracy concerns that have plagued legal AI applications through a distinctive technical approach breaking contract reviews into over 400 separate specialized AI tasks rather than processing documents as single queries. This methodical architecture aims to prevent the hallucinations and fabricated citations that have resulted in sanctions against lawyers relying on AI-generated legal filings.

CEO Min-Kyu Jung emphasized the approach beats standard chatbots through granular task decomposition, particularly important as demand shifts from high-volume simple contracts toward increasingly complex agreements. "Every key relationship in a business is defined by an agreement, yet most organizations struggle to extract the insights inside them," Jung stated. "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."

The accuracy emphasis responds to high-profile incidents damaging legal AI credibility. In 2024, a Virginia judge ordered lawyers to explain why they should not be sanctioned for submitting filings appearing to include fictitious cases generated by AI tools. Such incidents have made law firms and corporate legal departments highly selective about AI platforms they deploy for mission-critical contract work.

Ivo's platform features two core components addressing distinct pain points in enterprise contract management. Ivo Review streamlines contract review workflows using AI combined with lawyer-built playbooks to standardize legal positions and apply consistent checks across agreements. Customers report saving approximately 75% of time previously required for manual contract review, with particular value for large, globally distributed legal teams facing mounting contract volumes.

Ivo Intelligence provides searchability and analysis across complete contract portfolios without requiring manual tagging or metadata input. The system enables contracting teams to answer business-critical questions about their agreements within minutes rather than months of manual review, automatically identifying connections between documents and surfacing standard legal positions. This capability transforms contracts from operational burdens into strategic business intelligence assets supporting faster decision-making.

Kate Gardner, Senior Manager of Contract Operations at Uber, explained the selection criteria: "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. Furthermore, the Ivo team was highly responsive to Uber's needs."

The funding arrives amid sustained investor interest in legal AI automation. Competitor Harvey achieved an $8 billion valuation in a $160 million raise last year, demonstrating market appetite for legal technology despite economic headwinds affecting other venture categories. The sector benefits from clear return-on-investment metrics as enterprises quantify time savings and improved contract visibility.

James Palmer, Principal at Blackbird, noted that sophisticated in-house legal teams remain extremely selective about AI tools they trust. "Ivo's traction with some of the world's best companies shows it consistently exceeds that bar," Palmer stated. "With exceptional product execution and an uncompromising quality bar, we believe Ivo is defining and leading the category."

Carla Michel, Director Senior Counsel at CDW, emphasized integration into existing legal workflows: "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."

Ivo plans to triple its current headcount of 60 employees by the end of 2026, deploying the Series B capital into product development and go-to-market scaling across existing and new enterprise customers. The company indicated expectations to expand operations into the United Kingdom, extending reach beyond its current United States focus.

The company also reported a fivefold valuation increase over the past nine months, suggesting strong momentum heading into the funding round. Originally founded in New Zealand with subsequent operations in Sydney before relocating headquarters to San Francisco, Ivo's growth trajectory reflects the legal AI market's global expansion as enterprises worldwide seek automation for contract-heavy workflows.